Photo: Jason Mandella

 

CODED was a two-part project held at The Kitchen. From June 22 to July 29, 2016, Xaviera Simmons mounted a mixed-media installation in the gallery. This exhibition was followed by a two night, movement-based performance in the theater from December 8-9, 2016. For both works, Simmons drew from archival and online imagery of homoerotic bonding, Jamaican dancehall culture, and landscapes. This assemblage of aesthetics communicated a mapping of queer sensuality and sexuality, with the photographs, videos, and sculptures in the exhibition all pointing to experiences, memories, and histories that are at once familiar, but rarely considered together. This queer orientation of visual culture and art histories in the exhibition provided a choreographic score for the performance, which explored Black same-gender loving men and women through dance, prose, video, and photography. CODED was curated by Matthew Lyons.