About the UK Community of Practice Knowledge Production Series
This essay is part of the Liberatory Archives and Memory (LAMy) UK Community of Practice knowledge production series. Together, memory workers, artists, and archivists share reflections, research, and creative practices that reimagine archives as living, collective spaces of resistance, healing, and liberation.
By Dr. Carol Ann Dixon and Danni Ebanks-Ingram
Following the Liberatory Archives and Memory (LAMy) convening in Brighton, 25-26 April 2025, multidisciplinary artist and producer Danni Ebanks-Ingram (pronouns: they/them) and cultural geographer Carol Ann Dixon (pronouns: she/her) established a peer-to-peer partnership through which to explore and discuss shared interests in the oeuvres and art-political activism of contemporary artists who use their creativity to highlight and draw attention to issues of socio-economic, racial and environmental injustice worldwide. Over the course of five, one-hour online conversations the interlocutors presented and exchanged ideas, research resources and artistic case studies in response to the overarching theme of “Art as Resistance.”
In preparation for the first e-meeting, both contributors proposed a set of key questions and sub-themes they wished to explore in reference to the portfolios, publications and campaign activism of specific artists, curators, arts scholars and cultural commentators. Images from the poignant photographic installation “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” (1995/6) by the internationally renowned lens-based artist Carrie Mae Weems were used as a departure point for considering the following issues:
- Care and self-care practices when researching archival texts and images that include challenging historical content about enslavement, imperialism and colonialism
- Negotiating and resisting dominant expectations that prevail within the West to negatively impact artistic self-expression and acts of resistance by creatives and cultural producers with African heritage
- The politics and poetics of re-mediating archival materials via the visual and performing arts
- Intergenerational artistic co-production of knowledge
- Ways to resist, disrupt and push back against the marginalisation, exclusion and discrimination experienced by Black, LGBTQI+ and other minoritised creatives working within and beyond the UK arts, heritage and GLAM sectors.
This report summarises a selection of the discussion points, portfolios of work and creative ideas aired during the five meetings, presented as a co-written reflective review by the two participants: Danni Ebanks-Ingram (DEI) and Carol Ann Dixon (CAD). Some of the artworks, poetry and art-political quotations cited by both writers feature as creative “interludes” and “thematic threads” connecting the sub-sections.
Art as Resistance
CAD: It was a pleasure to work alongside Danni as a fellow co-designer of the LAMy Brighton convening, held in April 2025, and I welcomed the opportunity to continue discussing arts and heritage matters with them via this initial series of peer-to-peer e-meetings. One of the theoretical underpinnings of our opening conversation involved reflecting on the writing of African-American literature scholar Kevin Everod Quashie. In his seminal text The Sovereignty of Quiet (2012), Quashie observes that many Black artists have historically been expected to focus solely on issues of identity, race and racism expressed and represented in overtly political ways. Over time, therefore, Black artistic production has tended to become synonymous with public protest, with many artists only receiving mainstream attention and validation when foregrounding the history of collective struggles against racial violence, inequality and injustice. Quashie’s use of the term “an aesthetics of quiet” as a metaphor for representing the full spectrum of human lived experiences via the arts in very subtle, nuanced and poignant ways is a conceptual framework – and an alternative terminology – that both of us found insightful and liberating.
“In humanity, quiet is our dignity…Quiet compels us to ‘explore the beauty of the quality of being human,’ not only our ‘lives weighed down by the suppositions of identity.’ It is this exploration, this reach toward the inner life, that an aesthetics of quiet makes possible; and it is this that is the path to a sweet freedom; a black expressiveness without publicness as its forebearer, a black subject in the undisputed dignity of its humanity.”
– Quashie, 2012, p. 26
Challenging the “Deficit Paradigm”
CAD: Danni’s commitment to challenging the “deficit paradigm” is something I wholeheartedly support and strive to emulate within my own work as a researcher and educator. We both recognise the impact of systemic inequalities as the root causes of the many disparities we observe and encounter in the UK, and internationally. I welcomed Danni’s inclusion of artistic playfulness, creative experimentation, decolonial disruption and unruly behaviour within their own and others’ performance installations as powerful counter-responses to the prevalence of societal stereotyping.
DEI: Morosky touches on challenging the “deficit paradigm” in ‘Notes,’ where he describes what I interpret as a method of recognising, shifting from this deficit paradigm into centring ourselves, as multi-layered. We do not have to stop at the first label we are given (or give to ourselves) if it is not fit, we can enter into our intersectionality.
“The art of cutting and pasting is maybe the theme of my life. The intersectionality of my existence – existing between several different groups and cultures – almost demands it; especially in a society that needs you to be one thing and one thing only.”
– Morosky, 2021
Re-mediation – Learning from Carrie Mae Weems
CAD: Our shared appreciation for African American lens-based artist Carrie Mae Weems’ portfolio of work prompted thought-provoking discussions about the role of the artist as a “witness” who helps audiences understand and learn from difficult histories through their creative re-mediation of archival material. We were both moved by the brilliance of Weems’ re-mediation of a collection of racist 19th century daguerreotypes to create her seminal photographic installation “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” (1995/6). Weems’ careful copying, enlargement, cropping, tinting red and re-framing of these problematic archival images – and then her overlaying of the portraiture with texts and musical scores that reference the long history of racial injustice in the USA – transformed a traumatising visual archive into a poignant memorial piece commemorating anti-racist resistance. This seminal installation is now part of the New York Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection, viewable online at https://www.moma.org/collection/works/45579.
DEI: The remediation in this piece also brought up the importance of looking back, but doing so in a way that allows the viewer to reconsider the image. Weems displays this wonderfully and brings back the dignity and humanity that was initially missing in the original archival images. While discussing this work both Carol and I touched on the importance and poignant action of being able to look back at painful and dehumanising archival practices, while not allowing ourselves to be re-traumatised. Weems has given some viewers that opportunity, while still holding space for the original intention to set in its subtext.
Intergenerational Knowledge Co-production
CAD: Listening to Danni describe the artistic collaborations co-developed and performed with their Nan, Chearine Ingram – titled “To you, from us” – revealed so much about the importance and value of intergenerational knowledge co-production. Reflecting on this personal case study also led to broader social and health-related considerations about ways to prevent the levels of fatigue, weathering and burnout that can arise from fighting the everyday impacts of structural discrimination, inequality and injustice. Recognising “rest as resistance,” as well as engaging with other forms of self-care, care-giving and wellbeing support within our respective kinship groups and community networks became a recurrent theme that informed our follow-on discussions about individual artists and collectives known for addressing these topics via their artistic practice. For example, Danni shared details about the installation piece “Black Power Naps: La Biblioteca Is Open” (2023) – performed and recorded at MoMA, New York, by the artistic duo Navild Acosta and Sosa. Relatedly, I celebrated the portfolio of Dutch-Sudanese filmmaker Bibi Fadlalla – specifically citing her groundbreaking documentary film about the working lives and challenges of young African-heritage Netherlanders, “Get Up! And Rest” [Sta Op! En Rust] (2025).
DEI: Throughout this peer-to-peer partnership, the recurring theme of collaboration, distributive knowledge and disrupting the deficit paradigm came together in discussing ‘To you, from us’ and Black Power Naps: La Biblioteca Is Open. Both pieces of work centred rest and rebellion to capitalist, grind culture status quo. ‘To you, from us’ did this in its process, we had to embody and adapt the same energy through the lens of intergenerational co-production especially where long-term illness and fatigue are present in the everyday life of my grandmother, Chearine, and Black powernaps outwardly in presentation and call to rest for its audiences. Collectively, both pieces look at what has been taken and the long-term effect of that.
“Like Colonialism, a lack of sleep was used to break will, to break sanity and the possibility of dreaming about being free. That still is carrying through, generations after. It hasn’t been that much time, so it’s still resonating in our bodies and our reality. What happens when we don’t dream is a question that Black Power Naps seeks to answer.”
– Navild Acosta
Artists in Focus
CAD: Although we had shared interests in the work of a number of high-profile creatives – including Carrie Mae Weems – I was pleased to be introduced to several artists, their portfolios and publications I had not previously researched. In particular, photographer and poet Kevin Morosky’s body of work was completely new to me and helped expand my understanding of “flânerie” (”strolling”), a concept explored by Cecile Emeke as an artistic practice. For my part, it was a privilege to recount my first encounters with the work of creatives such as African American multidisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers, Gabonese artist-curator and conceptualist Anguezomo Nzé Mboulou Mba Bikoro (aka Anguezomo Mba Bikoro) and Sierra Leone-born poet, filmmaker and performance installationist Julianknxx. One of the works we appraised together was the sculptural installation “Blossom” (2007), by Sanford Biggers, on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum, New York. A particularly moving and affective aspect of this powerful mixed-media piece commemorating the history of anti-lynching activism in the USA, was Biggers’ inclusion of the Jazz-Blues song “Strange Fruit” (1939), recorded by Billie Holiday, as the work’s soundscape.
DEI: The exploration of Kevin Morosky’s work was through his physical media; a card deck of ‘Affirmation for your head top and other things to say to yourself,’ and his book ‘Notes’ described as cut and paste prose. I’ve followed Morosky’s work for well over a decade. There is a limitless sense of freedom to how he approaches filmmaking, writing and his art practice. This feels special and tender in the way his work centres liberation for those who are pushed to the periphery, but have the right to be in the centre. This is a topic that came up quite early on in conversations with Carol and myself, around allowing our stories to be at the centre and questioning and challenging the systems that are at play.
Concluding Reflections
CAD: Recognising our post-Brighton e-meeting discussions as a peer-to-peer partnership of reciprocal ideas exchanges was the key to their success. I was inspired by every conversation with Danni, which helped to broaden my knowledge and understanding about a wide range of artists who demonstrate creative courage, freedom, respect for difference and a strong commitment to equality and justice via nuanced aesthetic practices and activism. Additionally, I also valued the trust that was demonstrated by Danni, who generously shared insightful information about their own creative and critical body of work as an artist and producer. I’m very pleased to have participated in this collaboration and look forward to future dialogues.
DEI: Having the opportunity to work with Carol as a peer to exchange, connect and share knowledge has been a pleasure. For me there is a deep sense of commitment from Carol to stay connected and curious, and that in itself is exciting. Being part of the LAMy network and seeing how co-creating the Brighton convening has strengthened my sense of community building; specifically from a care-led approach has been an honour experience.
References
Acosta, Navild, Sosa and Naeem Douglas (2023). Black Power Naps Asks, “How Can We Dream If We Don’t Sleep?” New York: Museum of Modern Art [MoMA Online Magazine] https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/842
Fadlalla, Bibi (2025). Get Up! and Rest [Sta Op! En Rust]. Documentary, licensed by First Hand Films. Duration: 55 mins. Language: Dutch (with English subtitles). Trailer (YouTube): https://youtu.be/5f9wBQSa9l0
Hartman, Saidiya V. (2008). “Venus in Two Acts.” Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, 12(2), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1215/-12-2-1
Morosky, Kevin (2021). Notes. Number 22 Studio Limited. https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/13387/kevin-morosky-filmmaker-notes-book-interview
Quashie, Kevin (2012). The Sovereignty of Quiet: Beyond Resistance in Black Culture. New Brunswick, NJ, and London: Rutgers University Press. https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-sovereignty-of-quiet/9780813553108/
Weems, Carrie Mae (1995). “Seeing Through Photographs: “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried.” Documentary film. New York: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA YouTube Channel), Duration 2.32 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxLvKarmz-I&t=46s