River to River Festival 2022

OKWUI OKPOKWASILI + PETER BORN
repose without rest without end

Video Installation on view June 12 – 26, 7:00 am – 11:00 pm
Amphitheater at 28 Liberty Street, Ground Level

Live Performances:

June 13 at 8:00 pm

June 20 at 8:00 pm

Performance Duration: Approximately 40 minutes
Amphitheater at 28 Liberty Street, Ground Level

Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born’s new video and sound installation takes its point of departure from Okpokwasili’s performance work Adaku’s Revolt. This new piece focuses on a young Black girl who, as she is coming of age, rejects imposed beauty standards. She stops straightening her hair in refusal of the pain and damage created by chemical straighteners and hot irons used to tame unruly curls.

In this new video installation, Okpokwasili draws connections between Adaku’s hair and tree roots. The girl’s refusal becomes a vehicle of resistance from which the artist draws connections with trees whose seeds were transported by fugitive slaves in their hair. These acts of resistance reproduced networks not unlike the way trees communicate through extensive root systems underground. Stories and seeds are passed on through multiple generations of humans and vegetation, refusing trauma while reproducing and celebrating resilience.

Two live performance activations of the work will take place at 8pm on Mondays during River To River.

Co-commissioned by LMCC and The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center with support of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation

Presented in partnership with Fosun, with the support of the Alliance for Downtown New York

Presented with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels