Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room, MMA, NY (2021)

Artist/Designer: Andile Dyalvane, Cyrus Kabiru, Michelle Commander, Hannah Beachler, John Jennings, Fabiola Jean Louis, Robert Lugo, Chuma Maweni, Zizipho Poswa, Jomo Tariku, Tourmaline Tourmaline, Atang Tshikare

Project Location: New York

Figure 1: An installation at the Met, “Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room,” recreates the home of a Black Seneca Village resident as it might exist in our time, and in some distant future, including a five-sided television by Jenn Nkiru, William Henry Johnson’s “Jitterbugs II” screenprint, ca. 1941. Chandelier by Ini Archibong and Matteo Gonet ( Source | Photographer: Anna-Marie Kellen )

Figure 2: The installation is designed to appear like a clapboard house ( Source | Photographer: Anna-Marie Kellen )

Figure 3 ( Source | Photographer: Anna-Marie Kellen )

Figure 4 ( Source | Photographer: Anna-Marie Kellen )

Figure 5: Jenn Nkiru’s audiovisual piece “OUT / SIDE OF TIME” (2021) is the centerpiece of the living room space. ( Source | Photographer: Valentina Di Liscia )

Figure 6: In the kitchen, Whitfield Lovell’s portrait “Wise Like That” (2000) is joined by functional objects. ( Source | Photographer: Valentina Di Liscia )

Figure 7: Wallpaper by Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s, titled “Thriving and Potential, Displaced (Again and Again and…)” (2021) ( Source | Photographer: Valentina Di Liscia )

Figure 8: Henry Taylor’s painting “Andrea Motley Crabtree, the first” (2017) hangs on a wall of the gallery. ( Source | Photographer: Anna-Marie Kellen )

Figure 9 ( Source | Photographer: Anna-Marie Kellen )

Figure 10: A peek at some of the objects within the room, including German glass vessels (on the windowsill) and the back of a feathered chair designed by Atang Tshikare (inside). ( Source | Photographer: Anna-Marie Kellen )

Figure 11: Works inside include a painting by artist Henry Taylor (wall) and a colorful chandelier by Ini Archibong and Matteo Gonet. ( Source | Photographer: Anna-Marie Kellen )

Style/Period(s):
Arts and Crafts, Futuristic, Conceptualism

Primary Material(s):
No Primary Material Assigned.

Function(s):
Exhibition

Related Website(s):

Exhibition Website | Accessed : February 17, 2023

Exhibition Catalogue | Accessed : February 18, 2023

https://zeitzmocaa.museum/artists/cyrus-kabiru/ | Accessed : February 18, 2023

Significant Date(s):
No Significant Date Assigned.

Additional Information:
Books in Print

Alteveer, I., Beachler, H., Lawrence, S., Commander, M. D., & Jennings, J. (2022). Before Yesterday we could fly an afrofuturist period room. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Commander, M. D. (2017). Afro-Atlantic Flight: Speculative returns and the Black Fantastic. Duke University Press.

Building Address:
Exhibition Gallery 508, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028

Significant Dates:Nov 5 2021-Ongoing

Supporting Artists, Designers/Staff: Hannah Beacher, Exhibition Designer, Michelle d. Commander, Historian, Curator,

Associated Projects:

Tags:

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