During the summer of 2024, I was awarded a fellowship with the Kansas African Studies Center and took two levels of Swahili classes at the University of Kansas. During my studies, I learned much about, and came to admire, Swahili's family-centered culture and slower approach to life.  There is a Swahili proverb that says “Haraka haraka haina baraka” which means, hurry hurry is not a blessing, and another that goes, “Pole pole ndio mwendo” meaning slowly, slowly is the way to go.  Embracing these ideals, for this project I wandered off my hour-long daily commute, pondering the relativity of time and our constant connection to the “manmade,” and our existence as cyborgs and slaves to time.  As an act of resistance, I ventured into the stunning landscapes typically ignored.  I stood still and felt the wind blow round me.  I left my watch at home and forgot about the time.  I allowed myself the opportunity to experience life without this social construct, and I remembered that our time is truly priceless.  These are the works created from the experience.  This project is intended to queer time; to remind us that time is a social construct designed to keep us working and productive in our neoliberal capitalist society.  Motion is juxtaposed with stillness, blur and chaos are juxtaposed with meditation, and all intended to express the fits and starts, the non-linear experience of our life minutes, our time.  This work is an attempt to defy the demands of time, at least for a moment.

* Exhibition was on view from August through November, 2024.  Three artist talks were presented about the work during the run of the exhibition.

Exhibition