Exhibition: Steffani Jemison

From November 13 to December 18, De Balie will exhibit works by American artist Steffani Jemison, who work considers the relationship between writing, drawing, and gesture. Jemison writes: “I am looking for a route to drawing, and a route to writing, that does not pass through any masters at all, old or otherwise.

In 1999, two encrypted notes were discovered in the pocket of Missouri resident Ricky McCormick after his untimely death. Were they shorthand? Drawings? Or perhaps the index of a divine medium, the graphic transcription of speaking in tongues? McCormick was thought by his parents to be illiterate and his marks remain mysterious.

These same marks provide the point of departure for Steffani Jemison’s works on glass, in which fragments of the original notes are transformed to create new images. In her work, she proposes that perhaps refusal – to be translated, to be interpreted- is a form of freedom.

About the artist

Steffani Jemison (born 1981, Berkeley, California, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is part of collections including MoMA (New York, USA), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, USA), and the Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York, USA). She exhibited her work in the Netherlands at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and De Appel, both in 2019.

Jemison is a research-driven artist focused on African American culture and the intersections and tensions among the private, social, and political spheres. Through her multidisciplinary work, which spans video, performance, and sculpture, Jemison frequently questions linear storytelling and traditional narrative forms.