Steffani Jemison:
Figure 8

April 15 – June 5, 2021
Th-Sat, dusk-11pm

Everson Museum Plaza
401 Harrison St.
Syracuse, NY

Light Work’s Urban Video Project is pleased to present Figure 8, new work by artist Steffani Jemison commissioned by Light Work for exhibition at Urban Video Project’s architectural projection site on the facade of the Everson Museum of Art.

This exhibition is held in conjunction with two free online events, a Zoom workshop on Sunday, April 11 at 3:00pm and a Zoom artists’ talk on Thursday, April 15 at 6:30pm. More info

For nearly a decade, Brooklyn-based artist Steffani Jemison has been deeply invested in examining the ways knowledge is constructed and legitimized. This interest stems from a fascination with frameworks of interpretation and narration, as well as critical theory, and vernacular traditions, including street acrobatics, vaudeville, and Black vernacular genealogies of knowledge. She explores these concepts through a practice that encompasses sculpture, video, installation, sound, and fiction writing. 

About the Work


Figure 8
2021
HD video, color, sound
TRT: approx. 12m

CREDITS
Featuring: Alexis Page
Harp: Jess Garland
Additional recording: Steffani Jemison
Sound: Sean T. Davis / the HalfStyle

Figure 8 comes out of Jemison’s collaboration with athlete, Alexis Page. “Figure 8” describes the movement of the camera, which moves around the body of the performer, as Page muses aloud on continuity and fluency of gesture. Working together,  Jemison and Page have created a shared lexicon of movement, which they explore both as a Black feminist research method, an art-making strategy, and as way of approaching the everyday and the at-hand with virtuosity.


About the Artist


Steffani Jemison is an interdisciplinary artist whose work considers issues that arise when conceptual practices are inflected by black history and vernacular culture. She has participated widely in exhibitions, screenings, and readings. In 2011, she presented her collaborative project, Alpha’s Bet Is Not Over Yet, at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. She presented her solo project, Plant You Now, Dig You Later, at Mass MoCA in 2017-18. The 2019 Whitney Biennial featured her piece Sensus Plenior. She has participated in artist residencies at the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Project Row Houses, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She is a past fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020. She is currently an Assistant Professor in Media for the Department of Art & Design at Mason Gross at Rutgers University. Her work is represented by Kai Matsumiya gallery.

Artist’s website: steffanijemison.com



Sponsors


This exhibition was supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Related Events

My Body Is Opaque: Special Events

Movement Workshop
Sunday, April 11 at 3:00pm
Live on Zoom

Artist Talk: Steffani Jemison and Alexis Page in conversation
Thursday, April 15 at 6:30pm
Live on Zoom + Archived Online

Related Exhibition

Steffani Jemison: Sensus Plenior
Everson Museum of Art (indoors)
April 15 – June 20, 2021

In Contact Sheet