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Chorus of the Deep (something ephemeral and beautifully whole, when seen from the edge of one’s vision, too full when taken head on), by Firelei Báez

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Chorus of the Deep (something ephemeral and beautifully whole, when seen from the edge of one’s vision, too full when taken head on), 2023. Photo: Brenda Bieger

Cornelia
Seymour H. Knox Building

Chorus of the Deep is a monumental glass tile mosaic that invites viewers to immerse themselves in an oceanic world. Up close, the image seems to be an abstract symphony of color and light. From a distance, abstraction comes into focus to reveal swimming bodies and sea flora. This visually dynamic experience is deliberate. The glossy and variously textured tiles, or tesserae, invite the viewer to inspect the work from different perspectives. Against the work’s shifting field, viewers must find their place visually and also historically.

Báez’s work is inspired by the Afro-futurist myth of Drexciya, an underwater, Afrodiasporic civilization, conceived by the Detroit-based techno music duo James Stinson and Gerald Donald, also known as Drexciya. This aquatic world is populated by “Drexciyans,” a society of water-breathing beings born to the pregnant women thrown overboard during the Middle Passage  of the international slave trade. For many descendants of the enslaved, the ocean carries a heavy weight as the site of millions of unmarked graves. Here it is reimagined as a utopian seascape. Drexciyan society, as visualized by Báez and as heard in Drexciya’s music, is joyful, radiant, and full of creative energy. The otherworldly quality of Chorus of the Deep draws us into a place that challenges and expands the way we look at history, offering bright and interconnected alternatives.

Báez reveals how visual experience relies on conditions like lighting and scale. “Scale,” she says, “is about intimacy and the breaking down of preconceptions by relating directly to the body. I always say that just because some of the content of an artwork might be opaque, a constant for everyone is their own physical presence, or standing, in relation to something else."[1]

This project was organized by Andrea Alvarez, Associate Curator.


Chorus of the Deep is a long-term installation. This page marks a year-long celebration highlighting newly commissioned works for the 2023 opening of the Buffalo AKG.

Báez traces outlines of forms on a printed image of the work to assist in the translation to the mosaic format. Photo: Andrea Alvarez for Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Báez and the mosaic artists discuss tesserae selection and the translation of the aqueous medium of painting to mosaic. Photo: Andrea Alvarez for Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Báez and a mosaic artist explore options for changing color saturations and mixtures by adding new hues to the composition. Photo: Andrea Alvarez for Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Closeup of the mosaic's textured and smooth tiles, or tesserae. Photo: Andrea Alvarez for Buffalo AKG Art Museum

The artist Firelei Báez worked in close collaboration with mosaic artists at the historic firm Mayer of Munich, who produced the mural. Here, the team glances up at the overhead mirrors that allow them to see the whole image. Photo: Andrea Alvarez for Buffalo AKG Art Museum

The artist Firelei Báez worked in close collaboration with mosaic artists at the historic firm Mayer of Munich, who produced the mural. Here, the team glances up at the overhead mirrors that allow them to see the whole image. Photo: Andrea Alvarez for Buffalo AKG Art Museum

About the Artist

A person with medium-light skin tone and long brown hair looks up and to the right, behind her a row of large, old red booksBáez, who was born in the Dominican Republic to Dominican and Haitian parents, and now lives and works in New York City, highlights the fact that no place is neutral, and she offers opportunities for viewers to critically engage with established narratives. For her “the benefit of existing in [the] transverse space” of an Afrolatina immigrant whose experiences, identities, languages, and sense of home have naturally been fluid, has granted her a “certain flexibility and adaptability. You move away from this rigidity of form or understanding of self as singular…”[2] and instead celebrate the complexities and nuances of life. Through her work, she offers idyllic possibilities for the future born from the horrific histories of enslavement, imperialism, and other injustices. She sees art as an opportunity to make memory, history, and mythology more present and real to her viewers.


Notes

1. Firelei Báez in conversation with Thelma Golden, in Firelei Báez: to breathe full and free, edited by David Norr, with contributions by Carla Acevedo-Yates, Mark Godfrey, Thelma Golden, Eva Respini, Legacy Russell. New York: Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2022, 31.

2. Ibid., 37.

PROGRAM SPONSOR

The Buffalo AKG’s exhibition program is generously supported by The Seymour H. Knox Foundation, Inc.