BLK INTEL | Toxosi Saudade

By Toxosi Saudade of Res #112 New Orleans Exchange. August 2022 Sculpture and installation made of Collection cloth, Mannequin, wood, shoes, Wire, tincture bottles, Army Surplus scrap metals and trinkets. old tires, Playin cards, Dice

“As a Black woman the revelations found in African Vernacular Art have always been intriguing to me. To create out of nothing is a legacy of black intelligence. For instance, found objects such as scraps of cloth that made quilts of abstract and geometric excellence, old tires, scrap metals, wood and wire with old shoes tied would make a paramount sculpture of metaphysical and communal codes of understanding and intrigue. All creations embodied symbolic language, love and protection that communicated with the deepest aspects of African American people of the rural South, 1848. In continuing this legacy, a legacy that influenced Rauschenberg, Folk Art and many more in their sculptures and paintings, in my work I choose objects to create an altar that honors and speaks to jazz in New Orleans as a vital frequency of life and death and rebirth in communal grief and celebration of the first and second lines. The centerpiece is an adorned breastplate of grand femininity and is shrouded with cloth, ribbons, strings, buttons, eyeglasses, watches, toys, bells, magnets, zippers, stickers, concrete nails, pendants and much more. This is the portal of life, death and rebirth. The doorway of the multiverse, the mother of all who is ever present and balancing worlds. On her left and right, above and below are collages of musicians as playing cards, elements of  Hoodoo and Vodun that represent earth, medicines, reflection, the psalms, money, a balance- symbolized as the drums from Africa sonically correcting wrongs into rights. There is a red light that casts a glow of shed blood, power and protection. Along the baseline of the wall is brick dust repelling any negative energies that may linger from a mis-step by foot or gaze." -Toxosi Saudade