Posted @withregram • @aai_nyc “My last [body of] work was really about sort of peeling back layers of the self to find what is the true self. Does that exist? Do we exist outside of our experiences, outside of things like nature, nurture, DNA, and ancestry? Is there somebody else there? And I still don’t have an answer to that question, which is why I’m continuing to define a doubt, if you will. In works prior, I have had this motif that I continue to use that you can see in boxes I’ve made - I call it a portal. It references a specific gate at the Elmina slave castle*. And this idea of “being in the wake” like Christina Sharpe says, or to exist, sort of not back there and not up there, but here as Black people. What beauty can we build here?” (Calli Roche) ‘Doubt and Defiance’, featuring new and recent work by artist Calli Roche (@ca_lli), 2022-2023 alum of @aai_nyc’s LES Studio Program. The works on view are objects that remain from Calli’s ongoing insistence and struggle to remain in a space, portal, or undetermined interim of doubt. * Built in 1482 by Portuguese traders, Elmina Castle was the first European slave-trading post in sub-Saharan Africa. Located on the western coast of present-day Ghana, it was originally built to protect the gold trade, but following its capture by the Dutch in 1637, it came to serve the Dutch slave trade with Brazil and the Caribbean. The castle came under British ownership in the 1800s. 📸 Calli Roche @ca_lli, Peace, Care, Creativity, and Community 2024. Reclaimed wood, found metal, rice, clay, organza. Doubt and Defiance, 3 May – 16 June 2024. Cuchifritos Gallery, New York. Photo: @bradfarwell Special thanks to Jalen Kendrick, curatorial assistant @vlexander.us #calliroche #cuchifritosgallery #DoubtandDefiance #contemporaryart #artistsallianceinc #cuchifritosgalleryprojectspace #installation #essexmarket