Birmingham Open Media (BOM) starts the year with the exhibition We Run This, which explores intersectionality and questions existing paradigms of race, gender identity and sexuality through film, animation and code made by women of colour.
Althea, credited as Sun Stephenson, is one of the artists selected for the exhibition, to which she brings the project ‘Liberation Gates’, an interactive installation that activates according to the distance of a target. Two pillars don the quote “liberalisation is not westernisation, westernisation is not modernisation” in Nsibidi (a ideographic script indigenous of West Central Africa, used to write the local language Igbo, among others), and it’s English translation. The project reacts to proximity, making use of colours and Arduino programming to enthrall viewers, giving them their own perspectives on the quote as well as food for thought.
We Run This continues until March 2nd at BOM ( 1 Dudley Street, Birmingham, B5 4EG ). In addition to it, this Saturday Feb 26th there will be a free “unconference” called Digital While Black, where you can catch Althea as a workshop host and reflect about the opportunities and challenges that digital media has brought to black and PoC expression.
For more information, visit the websites of BOM, We Run This and Digital While Black.
