Stages of tectonic blackness is part of the Armory Center for the Arts contribution to Getty's PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative From the Ground Up: Nurturing Diversity in Hostile Environments, Aug. 9, 2024-Feb. 23, 2025.
Rooted in the idea of the seed as a mechanism for great change, the From the Ground Up exhibition feature works by 16 contemporary artists and artist teams who explore histories of contested spaces, pre-colonial understandings of nature, and ancient and contemporary technologies as they imagine alternative, sustainable futures.
Nikesha Breeze presents a dual-channel video stages of tectonic blackness that honors the legacy of Blackdom, New Mexico through a site-specific dance ritual created in collaboration with Miles Tokunow, Lazarus Nance Letcher, and MK.
GROUND SERIES co-director Brittany Delany attended the wonderful, very lively and full reception on September 8th, with 550+ people in attendance. There was much enthusiasm for the exhibition and the publication.
Brittany was delighted and grateful to connect with Irene Georgia Tsatsos, guest curator and former Armory Director of Exhibition Programs/Chief Curator.
A beautiful variety of guests enjoyed the presentation on view.
PST ART: Art & Science Collide is Southern California's landmark arts event, with more than 70 exhibitions from museums and other institutions across the region, all exploring the intersections of art and science, both past and present. At the PST ART: Art & Science Collide Press Forum, it was so affirming to see stages of tectonic blackness represented in one of the initiative's themes: Indigenous Knowledge.
GROUND SERIES Gratitude
Special thanks to the generous individual donors of our Fall 2020 fundraising campaign who supported the premiere of stages of tectonic blackness in 2020. This many-staged performance project and video piece continues to grow its reach, research and resonance. About stages of tectonic blackness:
stages of tectonic blackness is a many-staged performance project and video piece conceived by GROUND SERIES member Miles Tokunow with collaborators Nikesha Breeze, Lazarus Nance Letcher and MK; it tarries with the paralleled processes of dehumanization and extraction, emergence and rebellion, as sustained by Black bodies and rock bodies.
In a cultural moment racked with urgency, stages of tectonic blackness invites those engaging in the work to move slowly in order to feel more deeply into this time. As a durational practice of Black queer resistance, this work prioritizes Black experience, Black time, Black bodies and our racialized relationship to the earth.
Learn more: stages of tectonic blackness
photo credits: 1. Nikesha Breeze, Stages of Tectonic Blackness: Blackdom, 2021. Video still with Nikesha Breeze, Miles Tokunow, Lazarus Nance Letcher. Image by MK. Courtesy of the artist. 2. Irene Georgia Tsatsos, guest curator and former Armory Director of Exhibition Programs/Chief Curator with Brittany Delany. 3. Guests enjoying the presentation of Stages of Tectonic Blackness, 2021. Video still with Nikesha Breeze. 4. Visitors at the From the Ground Up exhibition public reception. 5. Slide showing PST ART:Art & Science Collide exhibition themes at the PST ART: Art & Science Collide Press Forum, photo by Brittany Delany.
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