Artists Alliance Inc: This exhibition is the final part of a three-part series you’ve been working on since 2019, Constructs and Context Relativity. What are some of the guiding intentions for that larger body of work? In what ways does Ah New Riddim (2023) serve as the conclusion to this series?
Christie Neptune: I am very interested in deepening my understanding of relational aesthetics, spatial theory, and Caribbean diasporic perspectives within urban visual culture. In Constructs and Context Relativity (CCR) (2019-2023), I examine how the roles of ‘absence’ and ‘presence’ inform the production of space. Through video, sculpture, photography, and performance, I explore the immaterial and material productions of perceived, conceived, and lived space within the American urban. The series draws reference from Henri Lefebvre’s (French philosopher and sociologist) theoretical concepts around space production, the notion of space as a social product defined by its relations between people and objects. CCR attempts to bleed this basic understanding of space into artistic practice to establish a new framework of understanding around black representational space in urban visual culture. Ah New Riddim (2023) is the third and final iteration of the CCR series. My initial approach to this project was objective and, to some extent, speculative. I started with broad questions about space.
As time progressed, my focus narrowed— ultimately ending on the subjective and autobiographical. In retrospect, CCR’s trajectory made complete sense. My understanding of architecture and space deepened due to research, experimentation, and academic study. Learning shifted from the experiential to didactic. Knowledge gained from both frameworks built confidence. With this iteration, I felt comfortable in exploring my embodied experience (subjectivity and social history) within the built environment and articulating a new framework of understanding around representational space, particularly black space.
AAI: Given that you have worked so much with your own family’s personal archives, has the process of building Ah New Riddim (2023) differed significantly from your previous projects?
CN: Absolutely. Unlike previous iterations of the CCR series, research and writing have been instrumental to the project’s development and countenance. It’s a great departure from my typical mode of ‘making.’ Past iterations were experiential. My approach and methodology stemmed from my experience in the urban and experimentation with material. Although one can argue that such is still the case for Ah New Riddim (2023), articulating the impulse driving my choices in writing was my first step. Ah New Riddim (2023) emerged from thesis research at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. The work frames an artistic intelligence around my concept introduced, Marked (Black) Axiological Shifts.
This exhibition is an attempt to shift theory into artistic practice. I rarely work like that, and I believe the same is true for most artists. A framework for understanding the work typically emerges through consistent practice in the studio and through deep reflection post completion. You get inspired. You create. And then you sit back and analyze what you have made. This iteration is very much different. For one thing, its trajectory is reversed. Much of my graduate experience was research-based. I wrote, I examined lineage, and I developed studies. Working through the ideas employed within research in the studio and gallery occurred after. As opposed to reflecting upon what is happening within the work, I am questioning whether the work is as effective in practice as it is in theory. What works? What needs to be improved? These are questions that can only be resolved through continued practice in the studio. For this reason, this project is and will remain ongoing.
Additionally, Ah New Riddim (2023) is rather personal. It is a subjective and autobiographic exploration of my lived experience in East Flatbush, a predominantly Black Caribbean community in central Brooklyn. There is much at stake here. White flight and the collapse of industry in the 70s and 80s fostered new housing patterns among young professionals of color, particularly Caribbean immigrants in central Brooklyn. Dancehall archival home video of my father highlights this transition; a critical shift within the neighborhood of East Flatbush from an Italian and Jewish middle-class community to a West Indian enclave of similar fashion towards the end of the 20th century. My story begins at the height of spatial reorganization
This project attempts to archive and preserve the stories and history of my community during a time of advanced displacement and privatization. It is testimony. More importantly, it challenges institutional hierarchies and structures of cultural governance that decide the criteria for art, who is seen, and what gets preserved. This retelling weaponizes my point of view.
AAI: Can you go more in-depth on the concept of Marked Axiological Shifts, black temporality/ subjectivity, and the importance or presence of these concepts within the exhibition?
CN: Marked Axiological Shifts, in theory, are nonlinear and interactive artistic approaches that register a perpetual re-imagining of black futures across space and time. It marks the decorum of modern cinema and visual culture with the conventions of Black temporality to foster multiple planes of perspectives and fields of movement within concentric progress narratives mapped across moving images, sculpture, performance, and installation. As an artistic intervention, this approach superimposes a wide aperture of black subjectivity across the narrowed plane of the urban. In practice, it fosters reciprocally active experiences. This language is very intentional. It frames a particular ‘politics.’ This ‘politics’ speaks neither from a position of marginality nor dominance but utilizes the values and semiotics of black culture to speak across space. This exhibit is the first of many forthcoming attempts to shift theory into artistic practice.
AAI: I notice a couple colors are particularly dominant in the exhibition, mainly red and yellow. Was this intentional?
CN: The film and installation have a consistent color palette of reds, greens, and yellows. To some degree, this is very intentional. However, it has more to do with maintaining continuity than color theory. Archival footage of my father is tinged with deep reds, pale yellows, and dark greens. In contrast to the overall film, the archive’s aesthetics was a matter of circumstance. It is simply a reflection of my father’s interior documented within an uninterrupted shot of dancehall. Unlike contemporary footage, the archives are stripped of the conventions of traditional filmmaking in Ah New Riddim (2023). It lacks the praxis of production. And, that is what I find most compelling about it, even paradoxical. In color theory, these particular colors evoke a pathos of belonging, warmth, and youthful naivety. It is very befitting of the film’s timeline, social history, and overarching narrative. During the late 20th century, East Flatbush symbolized a time of new beginnings, endless possibilities, and naive hope for the Caribbean immigrant. I wanted to maintain that pathos within the organization of contemporary footage.
AAI: What is the significance of choosing to make the sculptural elements within the show reflective?
CN: The sound system tradition of large stacked speakers are integral to Caribbean popular culture, more specifically, dancehall culture. I wanted to experiment with screen practice and employ elements of Black temporality within the re-articulation of this tradition. Screens are traditionally viewed as doors. They transport us to realms beyond our own sensibilities and provide us the opportunity to re-imagine. On my speakers, the screen as mirror doubles the spectator’s spatial perception. They reflect video projected upon the walls, objects in view, and in many instances, the spectators themselves. In the speaker’s interior, the screen as monitor displays looped animations of Super 8mm film etchings, a re-imagining of my own construction. Collectively, they forge new pockets of space to see and know.
My goal with this approach was to produce temporal disjuncture within the filmic encounter, one that disrupted linear processes of moving and seeing. Again, is it as effective in practice as it is in theory? Yes and no. I tend to look at my work as ongoing projects in development as opposed to finished pieces. As I evolve and explore new frameworks of understanding, so does my art. I will eventually try this approach again using different materials, techniques and processes.
AAI: Can you elaborate on the audio in your exhibition? What are the audience members listening to, and what was the process in creating these tracks?
CN: The audience is listening to a confluence of classic dancehall riddims and samples that I distorted. In the latter, I utilized audio production software to manipulate the character of sound—altering the riddim’s tempo, adding and redacting information to enhance its affective qualities. These sonic distortions were produced in conversation with classic riddims of the 80s. It is my response, my ‘talking back to,’ within this intergenerational dialogue between the past, present, and future.
AAI: Are there any questions or areas of research in Ah New Riddim (2023) that you want to continue to explore?
CN: I have so many open-ended questions that I would like to resolve regarding my thesis and this exhibition. And it only makes sense; graduate school is still fresh. However, I would need more time to debrief, process, and better articulate those questions in order to formulate an appropriate response. In the interim, I am listening to feedback and taking stock of how people experience the work within space. Again, this is an ongoing project that will evolve and change over time. The goal is to establish coherence between my artistic theory and form—something that resonates deeply with people and resolves my artistic queries around space and time. I have only begun the work. I am certain there are many questions and even more to come.
