Ten Little N̶i̶g̶g̶e̶r̶ Girls is a series of ten large-scale drawings that addresses the present-day reality of black girls in different states of danger within the American and global cultural contexts. The project is a retelling of the 1907 children’s book and nursery rhyme, Ten Little Nigger Girls, by Nora Case, which features a cast of ten black girls, who are each eliminated from the story one-by-one, sometimes in horrific ways (for example, one is burned alive, another is eaten by a bear).
The exhibit will also showcase two videos and an art-making performance in the gallery that will place the Ten Little Nigger Girls already installed in conversation with “New Girl,” an artwork that will be born at Rush Arts Philadelphia.
Dr. Imo Nse Imeh’s art features contemporary black girls in various states of danger, in the present-day, in the spirit of education and conversation, to examine the language, history, and realities of race in America, and the unsettling ways in which black children specifically have been imagined in the American social economy over the past century.
This project focuses on the imagination of black children–both historical and present-day concepts–in spaces of danger, primarily because of the vacuum in scholarship about the body of the black child in visual art and literature studies.
These drawings open up an important door for such a conversation to take place.
OPENING RECEPTION & LIVE ART DEMONSTRATION:
February 15th 6pm to 8pm
EXHIBIT DATES:
February 1st – March 15th
GALLERY HOURS:
Friday – Sunday 12pm to 4pm & by appointment