on-off.site resident // Lucia Olubunmi Momoh
As we look back on our first on-off.site residency, time hopping seems an appropriate place to start. Not only did the subject come up in our first planning conversation with Lucia, some ten months ago, but it is a central theme throughout her multi-part project.
We approached Lucia for this residency after she curated selections for our Holding Space open call, an initiative launched early in shelter in place that featured Bay Area creative practices and created opportunities for direct-to-artist donations. Lucia brought so much care and intentionality to her selection process and the relationships she cultivated with artists, and we were excited to collaborate again.
This brings us back to time hopping! Lucia shared how much she loved her master’s dissertation, which examined a 19th-century portrait of a free woman of color from New Orleans in the Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC) that fell prey to a professional restorer’s damaging alterations. Her original scholarship is featured in part 1 of her residency, Not Betsy, and explores issues of vandalism, race, care, and authorship—all of which continue to feel urgent even ~200 years later.
That’s one of Lucia’s many talents. She’s able to draw upon her deep knowledge of history and connect it to contemporary lived experiences. In part 2 of her residency, Re-Natured, Lucia brings us back into the 21st century for a conversation with photographer Chanell Stone and written reflections on Stone’s series, Natura Negra (2018-2019). Together they explore their experiences as Black womxn in the American landscape, who nature is for, agency, Sojourner Truth’s photography, what happens to art after it goes out into the world, and so much more.
An evident through line of Lucia’s residency is her emphasis on the interconnectedness of gender, race, class, the environment, and spirituality. Her scholarship powerfully asserts-and demonstrates- this intersection in relation to how power is constructed through images from our past and in our present.
Keep up with Lucia Olubunmi Momoh on her website + social media, and revisit part 1 of her residency, Not Betsy.
BTS of our interview with Chanell Stone
It was important to honor Lucia’s vision for her residency in all ways, including how we captured her conversation with Chanell Stone. In our conversations it was clear that we needed to shoot in a natural setting, since nature was a central theme and screen fatigue is real (as is the covid-specificity of the Zoom aesthetic).
This led us to an IRL shoot in a verdant East Bay backyard. The concrete and eclectic mix of trees and cacti surrounding us seemed to reference the lush, urban landscapes represented in Stone’s work. The day was clear, sunny, and the air was full of kids’ joyful shouts—which added a beautiful, sonic texture to the video.
Safety was a top priority during this shoot and we all checked in beforehand to communicate comfort levels. Hand sanitizer and anti-bacterial spray were flowing and our speakers were positioned over 6 feet apart from each other during the unmasked conversation portion of the shoot.
A special thank you to Lucia and Chanell for your trust and flexibility, and to Miguel Novelo Cruz for production support.
With thanks,
SG + SS