In Enunciated Life, Black spiritual beliefs—as well as the movements, sounds, and other bodily expressions that have engendered communication within and beyond Black churches—operate as a point of departure for considering modes of surrender. The exhibition’s title is derived from the scholarship of Ashon T. Crawley, who recognizes the beauty and power of breathing within Black Pentecostalism “to enunciate life, life that is exorbitant, capacious, and fundamentally social, though it is also life that is structured through and engulfed by brutal violence.”[1] Enunciated life, in other words, alerts us to the audaciousness of Black breath that endures in the wake of continued anti-Blackness.

The contemporary artists with work in this show, including commissioned works by Shikeith, Billy Mark, and Tiona Nekkia McClodden, draw upon the choreography and sonics of possession found in Black spirituality—the visible signs of embodied surrender, such as sweating, whooping, shouting, back-bending, and chest-opening. Through video, painting, photography, and installation, these artists help us explore the various bodily experiences that transpire through religion; they also make clear the far less legible elements that surround the event of incarnation, such as desire, longing, faith, and vulnerability.

The complete list of artists includes Ashon T. Crawley, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Ja’Tovia Gary, Allison Janae Hamilton, Steffani Jemison, Billy Mark, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Allie McGhee, Naudline Pierre, Marianetta Porter, John Sesrie-Goff, Shikeith, and Carrie Mae Weems.

Enunciated Life is curated by Taylor Renee Aldridge, Visual Arts Curator and Program Manager.

Catalogue now available!
Enunciated Life, CAAM’s first self-published catalogue under the museum’s new publishing initiative, is now available. The book features essays by exhibition curator Taylor Renee Aldridge, artist and scholar Ashon Crawley, and minister and art critic Joe Tolbert Jr., with a foreword by Executive Director Cameron Shaw. These contributors expand on the theories and practices of Black spirituality as routes toward freedom and explore how visual art and archival materials chronicle the desire, longing, faith, and vulnerability of such experiences.

The catalog is $15 and now available at CAAM, Reparations Club, Arcana Books, and Printed Matter.

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On September 29, 2020, Visual Arts Curator and ProItalic textgram Manager Taylor Renee Aldridge and performance artist Billy Mark explored the theoretical notions and implications of surrender, worship, and revival that led to the formation of the CAAM exhibition Enunciated Life.

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[1] Ashon T. Crawley, Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility (New York: Fordham University Press, 2016), 38.