Lorraine O'Grady - New Histories

von 19.08.1999 bis 19.08.1999
Ausstellungsübersicht, Lorraine O Grady

Exhibition view
Cibachrome prints
 
New Histories

Devonia was eleven years older than I. My feelings toward her were complex, veering between hero worship and sibling rivalry. When she died suddenly, at the age of 37, we had not spoken for three years.

In 1980, I did the performance NEFERTITI/DEVONIA EVANGELINE in an attempt to have a final conversation with her. The resemblance I had noted between Nefertiti and Devonia provided a safe space in which to work through our relationship as well as to explore the complex relations between sisters in general. As I enacted a failed ritual on stage, accompanied by voice-over narration, 65 sets of double slides were projected behind me.

A decade and a half later, in 1994, a number of double images were selected from the performance to make the wall installation MISCEGENATED FAMILY ALBUM. The word "miscegenation" refers to union between the races, which was against the law in most of the United States as late as 1967. Here the word refers both to the way the two families, ancient and modern, were founded and to the formal content of the installation.
Lorraine O'Grady