Black Lights Matter | Ayo Jackson

Residency
Written By

Ayo Janeen Jackson (New York, NY)

October 2016. Publication documentation. Durational performance, florescent black light paint, museum collection tables and chairs.

In Black Lights Matter, Jackson aims to grant agency to her own black, female body utilizing techniques inspired by Yves Klein's use of the human body as a primary medium. Jackson coated her body in black-light paint and applied impressions of her figure onto chairs and tables in Elsewhere's common space where visitors use a black-light flash light to uncover these "bodies." This uncovering relegates power to the black-light being used and exposes narratives not seen by the naked eye.In addition to Klein's work, Jackson also uses inspiration found in her own historical research contextualizing the formation of current social climates pertaining to race; this includes contemporary cases of police brutality and slave narratives detailing the methods used to free themselves. Specifically, Black Lights Matter is a direct response to the contrast in Dr. Joy DeGruy's Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, the theory of cognitive dissonance, and Christian attitudes towards black and brown bodies.

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Ayo Jackson
Ayo Jackson

Ayo Janeen Jackson is a candidate for an MFA in Performance Art at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2018). She received her BFA at North Carolina School of the Arts and is a former member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Ballet Preljocaj, and the original cast of Spider-Man on Broadway. Jackson received a Princess Grace Award in dance (2004). She danced for the French pop star Mylene Farmer for her tour. Jackson worked with Julie Taymor on the film Across the Universe and Grendel, an opera. She served as the associate choreographer for the workshop of Superfly, a musical and the Presidential Scholars Program at the Kennedy Center both directed by Bill T. Jones. Jackson appeared in the film Black Nativity, the opera Anna Nicole, episodes of Boardwalk Empire, The Knick and HBO's Vinyl. She recently choreographed An Octoroon in Philadelphia. Jackson's visual artwork has been on display at La Maison d'Art and the Harlem Arts Festival (2016). This fall Jackson launched the first leg of her performance art piece Walking with Freedom, The Heritage of the Black Imagination, where she retraces the pathway of Harriet Tubman. Jackson is an artist in residence at Elsewhere in Greensboro, NC.

During her residency at Elsewhere, Jackson created Black Lights Matter.

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