Inspired by the Agnicayana ritual of recomposing Prajapati’s body after cosmogenesis, her practice follows her existence as it is re-formed through evocations of the identities within her. Such as, the shadow self, the inner child, the passion, etc. She uses the Black Radical Imagination to emancipate Black creations and existence from the bounds of society by focusing on transformative dreaming. She is defining the term “AfroFrequency” as the root of the Black Magical Experience. That is the ontology, mysticism, history, and transcendental realities that live at the root of African existence. She wants her practice to be a tool for liberation that ushers marginalized communities into innovating their futures. The raw and personal narratives in her work emancipate identity from societal restrictions by removing the white monolithic lens from her Black body.
Arit Emmanuela Etukudo
Go Back and Get It
Print on unstretched canvas
“I use self-portraits as a way of retaliating against spaces that try to force me to live by their perceptions of how to be palatable. In order to negotiate myself into these spaces, I express my dichotomy by combining the religious, the sensual, the mythological, the lyrical, and the spiritual.
My work is an ode to the fluidity and boundlessness of Blackness. It discusses what is possible when Blackness is emancipated from societal restrictions. My work is not only a form of psychological catharsis but also a tool of liberation. It tells Black people that we have power to exist differently, feel supernaturally, experience life deeply, and imagine radically.”
— Arit Emmanuela Etukudo
About the artist
Arit Emmanuela Etukudo
Inspired by the Agnicayana ritual of recomposing Prajapati’s body after cosmogenesis, her practice follows her existence as it is re-formed through evocations of the identities within her. Such as, the shadow self, the inner child, the passion, etc. She uses the Black Radical Imagination to emancipate Black creations and existence from the bounds of society by focusing on transformative dreaming. She is defining the term “AfroFrequency” as the root of the Black Magical Experience. That is the ontology, mysticism, history, and transcendental realities that live at the root of African existence. She wants her practice to be a tool for liberation that ushers marginalized communities into innovating their futures. The raw and personal narratives in her work emancipate identity from societal restrictions by removing the white monolithic lens from her Black body.
