For the final iteration of poet and artist PRECIOUS OKOYOMON’s unique eighteen-month commission at the Aspen Art Museum, the artist has reimagined the museum’s rooftop exhibition space and has erected a large-scale architectural structure, built from natural materi- als found around Aspen, that the artist refers to “as a kind of earthly womb, a space set aside for self-fragilization.” Inside the structure, the viewer experiences a musical composition arranged by Standing On The Corner Art Ensemble, a collective of jazz musicians led by Gio Escobar who worked with the artist on the soundtrack for each season of the installation. Okoyomon’s poetry can be found mixed throughout the track, interwoven with the sounds of moog synthesiz- ers and a symphony of other electronic instruments. A hanging door made out of the patchworked skins of stuffed animals encloses the shelter, separating the soft interior of the space from the wild exterior of the garden. Here, as in much of Okoyomon’s work, two affects unite, the austerity of ancient forms is disarmed by the incredibly cute: the adorable. The project, organized by curator-at-large Claude Adjil, expands Okoyomon’s ongoing exploration of ecological materials and frame- works in their work and furthers their investigation into the ways in which the miracles and terrors of our natural world have been indexed into strictly policied and racialized categories. Completely reimagined for each passing season, Okoyomon makes use of the project’s long timeline to highlight transformation and change. In the summer of 2021, Okoyomon collaborated with local growers to create a garden that celebrated the abundance and mutability of plant life, combining invasive species alongside those indigenous to the region and presented a monumental new sculpture My Heart Makes My Head Hurt - Ditto, Ditto Battle Angel , cast in concrete, of a black angel, resolute in prayer presiding over the garden, and the moun- tains behind her.
For the second iteration of the exhibition, the artist reimagined the museum’s rooftop exhibition space to reflect the harshness of the barren winter. For winter, Okoyomon planted evergreens among the dormant plants that flourished in these same beds just months ago and installed a working community oven in the place of the now-absent angel. Titled shining like a black sun at the end of the world and made out of hemp, packed mud, and concrete, the oven, that’s form is modeled after traditional West African storehouses, burned on Tuesdays and Sundays of each week for 9 hours in the heart of the garden to collectively warm and bless the community with ritual offerings. Continuing their collaboration with the jazz musician Gio Escobar, of the ensemble Standing On The Corner, who worked with the artist to record a chaotic randomized symphony for the garden in the summer, Ice Words Ghost Appearance for Strings, Woodwind, Brass and Drum , a new track, formally explored the season’s cold desolation in sound. The figure titled I saw nothing but the darkness in myself , acted as an Egungun, or a watchman of the night, a mythological masked spirit in Yoruba culture that protects against the incursions of evil. This summer, Okoyomon presents a far more modest figure, achieved in stoneware that continues their interest in deities. Inspired by the religious traditions of the Esan nation, an ethnic group in Southern Nigeria, the sculpture like an Orisha lurks in the garden’s bramble, watching over the sacred space.
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