Mikael Owunna
Imagine Fresh Darkness
Jun 6 - 29, 2024
Imagine Fresh Darkness marks the Pacific Northwest debut solo show of multidisciplinary artist Mikael Owunna. This exhibition delves into a rich tapestry of diasporic African myths, including those from Dogon, Igbo, and African-American traditions, and features nineteen images from Owunna’s groundbreaking photographic series Infinite Essence.
This series redefines conventional notions of photography, which from its Greek roots—photos (light) and graphos (drawing)—is often understood as “drawing with light.” Traditionally, photography uses light to draw an “objective” portrait of the world. However, Owunna’s approach subverts this foundational concept by utilizing ultraviolet light, which is invisible to the naked eye, to reveal and draw from the “blackness” or darkness itself. By creating custom camera equipment that captures the fluorescence of painted bodies under UV light, Owunna’s photographs reveal a spectral vision of humanity that aligns with and poeticizes African cosmological narratives, aspects traditionally invisible both to the human eye and standard photographic equipment.
The title Imagine Fresh Darkness challenges the viewer to reconceive darkness not as the absence of light but as a profound presence, teeming with unseen energies and narratives. In Owunna’s work, darkness becomes a canvas revealing the luminous and transcendent potential of the Black body, portrayed through a process that draws from the very essence of invisibility and blackness.
The exhibition also includes the film Obi Mbu (The Primordial House), co-directed by Owunna and Marques Redd. Shot in complete blackness under a backdrop of ultraviolet light, this experimental dance film is centered in the Primordial House, located in the Sirius star system, from which creation emerges. Eke-Nnechukwu, the Igbo high god, and Chukwu, Her masculine counterpart, exist in perfect unity in and as the Blackness of space. Although They are dual aspects of the Primordial Androgynous deity, Chukwu sections off a part of space exclusively for Himself in the form of a sacred pillared chamber in the heart of the Primordial House. He engages in a secret work by dancing in and out of this chamber, which sets off a chain of irrevocable circumstances that lead to our current world and condition.
Imagine Fresh Darkness not only showcases Owunna’s innovative visual techniques, but also offers a poignant commentary on the revival of traditional African knowledge systems and reimagines Black spiritual and artistic expression for the 21st century. This exhibition invites viewers to see beyond the visible, into realms of cultural and cosmic depth that celebrate the rich heritage and mythology of Black identities.
Mikael Owunna (Nigerian American, b. 1990, he/they) is a multimedia artist, filmmaker, engineer, and the President of the City of Pittsburgh's Public Art and Civic Design Commission. He is also the Co-founder and Executive Director of Rainbow Serpent, a Black LGBTQ art nonprofit organization. Exploring the intersections of technology, art, and African cosmologies, his work seeks to elucidate an emancipatory vision of possibility that revives traditional African knowledge systems and pushes people beyond all boundaries, restrictions, and frontiers.
Owunna’s work has been exhibited across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America and has been collected by institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Nasher Museum of Art; Middlebury College Museum of Art; Equal Justice Initiative; Duke University Pratt School of Engineering; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; and Mississippi Delta Health Center. His work has also been featured in media ranging from the New York Times to CNN, NPR, VICE, and The Guardian. He has lectured at venues including Harvard Law School, World Press Photo (Netherlands), Tate Modern (UK), and TEDx. Owunna has published two monographs: Limitless Africans (FotoEvidence, 2019) and Cosmologies (ClampArt, 2021). Owunna’s multimedia practice includes film and live performance, in 2021 he directed the dance film Obi Mbu (The Primordial House) with Marques Redd, and in 2023 he premiered the multimedia live performance The Four World Ages with the Rainbow Serpent Collective. Owunna's work has been commissioned for major public art installations by organizations including the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Foundation, Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, Pittsburgh International Airport, and Orange Barrel Media.