iThe Studio Museum in HarlemHarlem
Kapwani Kiwanga: BLEED
A site-specific installation by Kapwani Kiwanga reworking the quilting "flying geese" pattern in natural dyes, evoking the Underground Railroad and histories of Black resistance.
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A black wave of dyed fabric rolls along the bottom of the wall, and the blue above it is pieced from hundreds of small triangles. That is the "flying geese", a quilt pattern said to have guided people north on the Underground Railroad, blown up by Kapwani Kiwanga to fill the second-floor project gallery from floor to ceiling.
You stand in front of a dappled black made by oxidising pigment with salt water from the Atlantic, indigo for the blue swells, and a red oval dyed with pokeberries, a toxic North American fruit. The berries are for Delphy, a Black woman accused in 1816 of poisoning her enslaver with them. Kiwanga used fugitive dyes, colours that can change over time, so the wall keeps a record of its own run.
It is one work in one room, and no critic has reviewed it yet. Entry is pay-what-you-can ($16 suggested), free on Sundays and for anyone 16 and under, and Fridays run to 9pm.
Look for
The pokeberry oval
A red oval floats in the indigo, dyed with pokeberries for Delphy, accused in 1816 of poisoning her enslaver with the fruit.
The Atlantic black
The dappled black wave along the bottom was made by oxidising pigment with salt water collected from the Atlantic Ocean.
The flying geese in indigo
Look closely at the blue: it is pieced from triangles, the quilt motif said to point the way north, dyed with indigo, a plantation crop of the South.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Cheap Culture
- Evening Visits
Skip if
You want a full exhibition: this is a single textile work in one project gallery.
With kids
Free for children 16 and under, and for everyone on Sundays.
Also at The Studio Museum in Harlem
On now nearby
Image credits
5
- Kapwani Kiwanga: BLEEDPhoto: Kris Graves
- Splendido, As Seen by Chris RhodesCourtesy of Aperture
- Pierre Huyghe: UUmweltCourtesy of Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
- Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the SensesRhododendrites / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- The Studio Museum in Harlem19h00s, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0