Concept, Writing, Editing, Choreography by: Chisom Awachie
Music by: El Weintraub, Kenneth Keng, Chisom Awachie, Storm Thomas
Performers: Aliya Hunter, Megan Hamm
Shot in Bronxville, NY
Canon 80D
iPhone 11 Pro
Zoom H4n
Meanwhile…
Chisom Awachie
2023
Multichannel video installation, HD video, sound, 5:58 mins
Meanwhile… is the first installment of Meanwhile, Following, Moving Forward, a trilogy of multichannel video installations that tracks the artist’s understanding of the significance of her work in a white supremacist, capitalist society in need of a hundred things: affordable housing, a robust public health response to an ongoing pandemic, protection against and abolishment of the police, and more.
Meanwhile… juxtaposes projects completed during the artist’s MFA program with free-flowing thoughts about police violence and the prison industrial complex. The tone skews hopeless and jaded as the piece questions the point of musical theatre, acting, and movement classes as protestors risk their lives and people are left for dead in prison. The piece asks: how can art tangibly support a revolution? Why prioritize an artistic practice when people need food and shelter? How can one be of real use?
In the subsequent pieces Following and Moving Forward the artist pivots to research of Black women community organizers, modern-day oracles, and building community in a new home. A grounded optimism forms as the artist learns from friends with established socially engaged art practices. Meanwhile... encapsulates the early stages of radicalization, in which one is so moved by their surroundings that they can no longer sit still.
2023
Single channel video installation, color, sound, 3:48 minutes
Inspired by E. Jane’s #Mood Exercises, Visionboard is a joyful collage of safety, community, comfort, and home. A vision board covered with photos of Black women artists and affirmations about abundance in career and creativity serves as the backdrop of several short looped videos. The videos include the yard of the artist’s family home in Nigeria, an impromptu dance party of her siblings at their home in Atlanta, the artist singing a cover of Moses Sumney’s “Don’t Bother Calling,” and random mid-conversation clips to friends from Snapchat and Instagram. The audio from each of the videos overlaps, creating a gentle soundscape of memory. The videos loop constantly but are all further grouped within the Sumney cover, which repeats three times. The effect is a meditative collection of snapshots of good, stressful, and regular days. Sourced over several years from the artist’s camera roll, Visionboard is what happens when you’re away from your family and friends and want to remember several sweeter times all at once.
Inspired by E. Jane’s #Mood Exercises, Visionboard is a joyful collage of safety, community, comfort, and home. A vision board covered with photos of Black women artists and affirmations about abundance in career and creativity serves as the backdrop of several short looped videos. The audio from each of the videos overlaps, creating a gentle soundscape of memory. Sourced over several years, Visionboard is what happens when you’re away from your family and friends and want to remember several sweeter times all at once.
Creator, Performer, Editor: Chisom Awachie
Performers: Ifeanyi Awachie, Tochukwu Awachie
Shot in Anambra State, Nigeria; Bronxville, NY; Atlanta, GA
2023
Single-channel video installation, black and white, silent, HD video, 3 min
Inspired by Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon and Aleshea Harris’s What to Send Up When It Goes Down, CUPCAKE places anti-Black fetishization and cannibalism within a silent, confined, and dreamlike setting. A dinner date between Aisha (Black) and Beth (white) repeats, with Beth taking a number of Aisha’s body parts as matter-of-factly as talking about her day. When Aisha fights back, Beth is surprised and offended, as though this piecemeal theft was her right. Black and white coloring and additional filters afford the piece a filmlike and dreamlike quality. They speak to the absurdity of anti-Blackness and the believability of Black women who come forward about abuse. The repetition highlights how often Aisha may find herself in this position with future partners.
CUPCAKE poses the question: “So, your white lover/best friend/employer wasn’t joking when she said she “could just eat you up.” Now what?”
Shot in Bronxville, NY
Canon EOS 80D
Directed, written, and edited by: Chisom Awachie
Director of Photography: Aliya Hunter
Cast: Megan Hamm, Chisom Awachie
2022
Single channel video installation, black and white, sound, 3:38 minutes
New Year’s and the First Sunday of Every Month positions rituals from different spiritualities, adornment of the body, and the potential for a body to become dismembered.
A young woman prepares for an important event by applying makeup and setting a ritual space. In the opening shot, she sits partially obscured by tulle fabric. Extended closeup shots of her body accompany a soundscape including the ad for the board game Operation and the opening of Igbo Catholic mass. Snippets of a one-sided conversation allude to the event, as well as mysterious symptoms that the woman is dealing with. The soundscape eventually distorts, adding a sense of unease to the woman’s preparation. The closing shot mirrors the first, with the woman fully made up and prepared for whatever awaits her.
The piece provides the elements of a Black woman’s body, Christian and indigenous African spiritual practices, and a game about separating body parts to raise questions about the perception of women’s bodies in spiritual and commercial spaces. How are we treated in these spaces? How are these perceptions affect our bodies and responses to them in other areas of our lives? How can we keep ourselves safe?
Shot in Bronxville, NY
Canon EOS 80D
2022
Multi-channel video installation, HD video, color, sound, 2:42mins
In i think you’re really special, two videos in split screen depict a young woman spending a Saturday night in her apartment. The lefthand video uses handheld camera movement and warm lighting to outline her body as she lounges on a bed, awaiting instruction. Portions of her body are shown at a time, but never her full face. The righthand video uses still camera shots of the same young woman completing quotidian tasks: sweeping the kitchen, massaging herself with a lacrosse ball, goofing off in front of the bathroom mirror, etc. The two videos may evoke questions about agency or the sexualization of women simply existing in space. A repetitive trap beat plays underneath both videos, disjointing twice before fading to black. If played with each video separately, the music would convey very different tones or contexts; together they fight for attention.
Shot in Bronxville, NY
Canon EOS 80D
Written and composed by: Chisom Awachie
Cast: Chisom Awachie
Director of Photography: Aliya Hunter