I ain’t even know what I was seeking
- frida@artyardbklyn.org
- Dec 5, 2025
- 5 min read
This Monday in Advanced Studio on zoom AYB Artist Adji Ngathe Kebe presented Memory as Time Travel a session on creative transformation through memory inspired by the work of Octavia Butler, Chris Ofili and Wangechi Mutu. Adji lead a discussion which not only investigated these artists works, but also delved into the scientific aspects of memory.
Octavia Butler, Kindred book cover, and Wangechi Mutu, Yo Mama, 2003, diptych
Adji adds “We talked about memory, and learned from artists who often toe the line between memory, dreams, reality, and imagination. Much like the artwork produced, the conversations were enriching, and thought provoking.”
Participating artists created collaged works exploring the recollection from memory. We were directed to considered use fantastical or disjointed imagery and one might conjure up in the act or recollection.
Seb recalled the dizzying feeling of landing in NYC on his first journey here from Haiti. We loved the use of tape to add a disorienting layer to the collage.
Leah recollects the feeling of being at the pool for the warm ups in her high school competitive swimming days in her first piece. The second and third present a calmer more meditative feeling of being in the water swimming.
Rashidah revels in the memory of sitting with her sister enjoying MTV.
Margaret explains: “This collage was inspired by a memory of an afternoon in my grandparents’ backyard and the note I wrote about it: Two slices of chicken pot pie, a dash of salad and one slice of rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream later...I’m basking like the seal I feel akin to...on the warm grass listening to Maria Callas arias and pretending Medford in June is Italy”
Karla writes: "I often do not remember my dreams but only the awareness I've had a dream. Some, however seem like vivid collages themselves - blending an unreal, unlived fiction with real memories and emotions. That mixing of the two is what I'm expressing in this work. Dreams where I do not really know the people in them and unusual places I visit or try to navigate without familiarity. The emotion always seems familiar amidst a need to find solutions!! I am often migrating from one strange place to another! Our hands are not just tools but integral partners in shaping our brains I've included many symbolic elements such as eyes, elongated hands, human figures and fictitious figurative shapes inspired by Mutu's artworks in the lesson."
Dami reaches back to a childhood feeling which transpired over many years. We loved both her use of the window and the topsy-turvey-city-scape. Adji called the text in Dami's piece as beautifully done and trance-like.
Adji recalls her childhood terror of snakes, and how her nightmares woke the entire household with her piercing screams!
Cheyenne explains: "Lately I’ve been struggling to remember my dreams, but after the lesson I was reminded of the Mandela effect phenomenon, (where a group of people share false memories of specific details about an event, person, place etc.) my piece is a reflection of how it feels discovering your memory doesn’t exist in reality."
For my tabletop collage I (Meridith) used images culled from the New Yorker to create an outside/inside/outside memory of the AYB space at BWAC.
Read from left to right: the buildings as one arrives, closer on the single building. Inside- storage closet, bar with microwave, stone walls w arch window (the characters even resemble Richie & Jacob Rath!), someone drawing with an ink pen, a table set w supplies, a class listening, the arched window when I would proclaim "everyone, look at that sunset!", everyone looking at the watery vista and the Statue of Liberty.”
On Tuesday, Advanced Studio in person at 180 Franklin Avenue explored the transformation of ideas across the media of writing and drawing, in a whimsical group exercise inspired by the Greek concept of ekphrasis and the party game Pictionary Telephone with AYB Artist Evelyn Beliveau.
Evelyn writes: “The Poetry Foundation defines ekphrasis thus:
“Description” in Greek. An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.
Through the game, we iterated this process, working in marker on accordion books made from drawing paper folded into 9 sections. Participants started by creating a verbal prompt: a line of poetry, a description of an art piece likely to be unknown to the rest of the group, or anything they wished.
Working on the project
Then, we passed the accordion books around the table, and each participant made a drawing inspired by the words written by the person to their left. Refolding the book so that only the drawing, and not the text, was visible, each participant then passed the book on, and created a written response to the next person's drawing. We continued until all nine pages of each book were filled.
Participating Artists include: Ariel Abdullah, Juliet Adams, Evelyn Beliveau, Dami Famuyiwa, Fisola Famuyiwa, Rashidah Green, Jazz Guillet, Dalanney Gomez, Dylan Gomez, Sebastien LaBossiere, Richard Lee Chong, Meridith McNeal, Jasmine Pinturas, and Ed Rath.
Without knowledge of the previous pages, participants were free to bring their own interpretations to each book they received. I encouraged everyone to go with their gut and respond expressively to any part of the page that spoke to them.
At critique, we delighted in how some books remained focused or returned to a similar concept or feeling (“A video of a man in a field,” “To be or not to be,” “Red tulle / Brown skin,” “I ain’t even know what I was seeking”) while others diverged wildly from their starting points (“An egg / a bottle,” “The King of Pop / Rides on a Horse,” “A Room / with a bed”).
The bookshelves make the perfect critique area!
Several participants chose to read aloud the books they had started, taking us all on the journey of transformation their original prompts underwent. Information is lost, embellished, and reinterpreted as it passes through each new mind and hand, resulting in a “migration” of concepts.”
Other Art News
I (Meridith) am thrilled to announce my retrospective exhibition will travel to Museum of Miniature Houses in Carmel, Indiana. It has been a pleasure to work with Diego Fajardo the Collections Manager planning for Peer More Closely which will be on view at the Museum from February 2026- February 2027.
Spectral Evidence co-curated by AYB Teraching Artist Rachael Wren at The Shirley Project Space (609 Washington Avenue Brooklyn) is EXTENDED Through December 13!
AYB Artist Evelyn Beliveau, reviewed the show for last week’s recap (read full review in last week’s recap), calls the show: “A lively, tightly focused exhibition where virtuosic color, shifting surfaces, and radiant gradients reward close looking from every angle.”
You are invited to attend the closing reception Sunday December 7th, 5-7pm!
Opportunities
AYB Teaching Artists Reg Lewis shares this promo for his March show at The Tank, 312 West 36th Street, NYC!
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