Ancestors returning again / this time only to themselves
Black Quantum Futurism + Hatfield House, Fairmount Park Conservancy
August 14 - September 19, 2021
Ancestors returning again / this time only to themselves is a site-specific art installation by Black Quantum Futurism at the Hatfield House of Fairmount Park Conservancy.
Installation view: Black Quantum Futurism, Ancestors returning again / this time only to themselves, 2021, photos by Albert Yee, courtesy of Fairmount Park Conservancy
Write No History
The installation debuts Black Quantum Futurism’s film Write No History (2021), presented as a video and sound installation inside Hatfield House’s ground floor rooms. Write No History features found and archival footage of The Temporal Disruptors, members of an ancient secret society of Black scientists, healers, and writers transporting a “quantum time capsule” between the future, past, and present. The Hatfield House in Fairmount Park is transformed into a gallery of artifacts and found objects from the secret society.
Write No History is directed and produced by Black Quantum Futurism (Rasheedah Phillips x Camae Ayewa) with filmmaker Bob Sweeney. Featured Temporal Disruptors include: Dominique Matti, Iresha Picot, Marcelline Mandeng, Vernon Jordan III, Angel Edwards, Vitche-Boul Ra, Sheena Clay, Camae Ayewa, Alex Farr, Rodnie King, and Riot Dent.
Open to the public from August 14 to September 19, 2021
Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday: 1 – 5pm
No reservations are required; visitors will be admitted on a first-come, first-serve basis. Masks are required indoors and social distancing protocols will be in place.
Hatfield House is located at 33rd Street & Girard Avenue, Philadelphia.
Black Quantum Futurism
Based in Philadelphia, Black Quantum Futurism is an interdisciplinary creative practice between Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips that weaves quantum physics, afrofuturism, and Afrodiasporic concepts of time, ritual, text, and sound.. Black Quantum Futurism has created a number of community-based projects, performances, experimental music projects, installations, workshops, books, short films, zines, including the award-winning Community Futures Lab and the Black Woman Temporal Portal. BQF Collective is a 2021 CERN Artist Residents, 2021 Knight Art + Tech Fellows, 2020-2022 Vera List Center Fellow at The New School, 2018 Velocity Fund Grantee, 2017 Center for Emerging Visual Artists Fellow, 2017 Pew Fellow, and 2016 A Blade of Grass Fellow. BQF has presented, exhibited, and performed at Red Bull Arts NY, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Manifesta 13 Biennial, ApexArt NYC, Philadelphia Museum of Art, ICA London, Serpentine Gallery, Monument Lab and more. Learn more at BlackQuantumFuturism.com, @AfroFuturAffair.
Image: Rasheedah Phillips (left) and (right) Camae Ayewa
Hatfield House, Fairmount Park Conservancy
The Hatfield House, a historic house and community cultural hub, is located at the intersection of North 33rd Street and West Girard Avenue in East Fairmount Park. Originally a farmhouse constructed circa 1760, it is a Philadelphia Parks & Recreation property and the only all-wood historic house in Fairmount Park. In 2017, Fairmount Park Conservancy began the journey with the Strawberry Mansion community to transform the Hatfield House into a community-centered space for art, culture, and history.
Fairmount Park Conservancy is the non-profit champion of Philadelphia’s parks. We lead capital projects and historic preservation efforts, foster neighborhood park stewardship, attract and leverage investments, and develop innovative programs throughout the 10,200 acres that include Fairmount Park and more than 100 neighborhood parks around the city. For more information, please visit myphillypark.org, and follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @myphillypark.
Ancestors returning again / this time only to themselves is generously funded by the Knight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts with additional support provided by ArtPlace America.
The exhibition is organized by Past Present Projects.