I was walking around Jamaica Avenue in Queens, New York the other night and came across an outdoor art installation featuring work from Margaret Rose Vendryes‘ African Diva Project and work from Dominique Sindayiganza’s Roots Project. Vendreyes had previously showed her work in an exhibition at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning in February where she debuted her latest piece from the Side B of the project, “Punu Janelle.” According to Tucker Contemporary Art, “The exhibition is a series of famed album covers by iconic Black female divas redesigned and re-imagined to question the role of race and gender in contemporary Black communities.” Vendryes adds, ” I give these dynamic female performers agency and protection replacing their psychological mask with a literal one. Songs… messages that once rose out of vinyl channels, like black magic, are inscribed in the space that surrounds them.” The outdoor instillation will be on display until September. I quickly took a few pictures of Vendryes’ work and posted them below (click on the images to see them larger):
Also, here is an interview with her from Tucker:
Sherese Francis: Futuristically Ancient 