‘States of Becoming’ Live Performance

“States of Becoming” exhibiting artist Helina Metaferia will perform a newly commissioned live work from her “Refiguring the Canon” series. In this series, Metaferia transforms history into mythology, and interrogates its emphasis on western male exceptionalism. Transforming iconic abstract artworks from museum permanent collections into backdrops for performance interventions, Metaferia uses simple gestures to assert her Ethiopian-American female body into a cannon where women and people of color have historically been negated, while being appropriated (i.e. the “primitivism” influence in Modernism). Previous performances from this series have taken place for the camera or a live audience at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and National Gallery of Art. Documentation from those performances, as well as a large-scale collage, are on view as part of the exhibition.

Helina Metaferia is an interdisciplinary artist working across collage, assemblage, video, performance, and social engagement. Her work integrates archives, somatic studies, and dialogical practices, creating overlooked narratives that amplify BIPOC/femme bodies.

Learn more about the artist HERE.