Now on the MagicBoard: Invisible by kara lynch
In 2099, the transatlantic slave trade never happened.
Invisible is a speculative narrative that explores the limits of Black liberation and western civilization. Separate episodes, each linked to a specific moment in time and space — and then elaborated into video and audio landscapes, installations, and performances for a contemporary audience — comprise this expansive project. Each episode incorporates archival footage and present-day field recordings to abstract a multi-voiced fiction of the original event. This is a project that conjures psychic and emotional states of being. The meta-narrative that drives this project begins here:
In 2099, the transatlantic slave trade never happened. The event disappeared from the history books. A strange cult keeps the false memory alive through ritual bondage and transport of bodies across imaginary borders. Three main characters dominate our experience in this futurescape. One, Z.L. Rhinehart is a CLEANER, Nia Tabono, a TIME-TOURIST, and THE ARCHIVIST. We now have the technology to move freely between a time/space continuum without adverse effect. There is no present/future ‘consequence’ for altering the past – the grandfather paradox – has no weight: thanks to a corps of CLEANERS. This chameleon caste melts into any era as they follow the every move of careless TIME-TOURISTs, picking up after them, shifting events to remedy their clumsy interactions with past and future landscapes. THE ARCHIVIST lives in the archives of the early 21st century dusting off the traces and remains of the past and the future. It is through her determined research and the unconventional presentation of her findings that we piece together this episodic story that speculates the black liberation parallel to eurotrash western civilization in the conflux of public record and sci-fi.
Invisible is a project that confronts a history of violence meted out upon Black bodies. It is dedicated to speculation: what-if and what could be. This is a project searching for a new visual vocabulary to describe the beauty and terror of the Black experience. In ‘Invisible’, maritime meets speed of light.