NOTES FROM VEGA

EXHIBITION: April 10 - 25, 2021

Gallery Hours: 12PM-4PM on APRIL 10TH, 17TH, 24th, and 25th

Black Hole Programming: SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2021

Notes from VEGA, a new body of work from A.J. McClenon, derives from McClenon’s ongoing VEGA project and is presented as the stage of a dystopian future. Set in the year 2112, 63 years after the “Post-Post-Post Movement,” the government is executing its Universal Relocation Project, (URP) and leaving Earth in a large machine fast enough to orbit a black hole. Three leading Black physicists, Vega, Dr. Kramoris (aka D'Ram), and Dr. Dahnara Bekti (aka Nara), work undercover with the Futurist Freedom Party (FFP) to help those left behind by securing technology for life to survive in Earth's deep oceans.

An interdisciplinary artist, McClenon weaves together performances, writing, video, and mixed-media drawings, collages and objects to share this story. In Notes from VEGA, we are invited to take a glimpse at the resilience of Black people and their ability to adapt and evolve in any circumstance. When the earth is no longer able to sustain their livelihoods and options are limited, they return to water—the source of life.

McClenon’s choice of mixed media collage for this series encompass the idea of reshaping the self. The use of calming blues and black silhouettes breathe life into modified souls. McClenon asks the viewers to step into this familiar yet abstract future. You are present in the artist’s vision but also encouraged to create and share your own.