Alayna N Pernell

With Our Mothers’ Gardens (2020 – ongoing), I have spent several months researching and uncovering suppressed images of Black women held in photographic collections at the Art Institute of Chicago. The images I have found and researched depict the exploitation and violence towards Black women. In my practice, I have excavated, re-photographed, re-captioned, and re-contextualized the original works. By engaging with these images with the intervention of my hands and my body, I rescue and protect Black women’s bodies and their humanity. I also unearth their stories, individually and collectively, so that they may be seen and heard. I beg for more than the visibility of Black women in institutional collections and hopeful reparations. I also desire for the issue around institutions holding and silencing collections of visible and (in)visible violent visual depictions of Black women to be further highlighted.

Website https://www.alaynanpernell.com/