“The Beautyful Ones” Series #9 2018

Editor: This is "The Beautyful Ones" Series #9 by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, created in 2018 using mixed media. I find the collage elements really compelling and it gives me the feeling of looking through someone’s memories, like a fragmented photo album. How do you interpret this work? Curator: It's interesting you say "memories," because Crosby's work often functions as a kind of social history painted onto the personal sphere. Consider the "Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born" referenced in the title, Achebe's famous novel; this image engages postcolonial themes. Notice the layering – the figures, the wallpaper that looks like newsprint. What do you think this superimposition communicates about the lives of the subjects? Editor: Maybe how personal identity is built on layers of cultural and historical contexts? I guess I’m trying to say that our understanding of who we are as individuals is influenced and informed by history and popular culture. Curator: Precisely. And consider how this understanding plays out on the global stage for those of the African diaspora. Crosby invites us to examine the social and political undercurrents of identity formation. How do global media and politics, past and present, become domestic experiences? Editor: I see how it creates a dialogue between the personal and the political, right down to the composition. So, it's less about literal memories and more about a collective cultural memory that shapes identity? Curator: Yes, and further, about who gets to tell the story of that memory, whose narratives are amplified, and whose are erased in the process of shaping public perceptions. Editor: I never considered how deeply rooted it was in postcolonial theory. Thanks for making that clearer! Curator: Likewise, you brought a fresh, insightful perspective about personal connection and accessibility of art.