work > Treasure

“Treasure” uses dance, projections, sound collage, and wearable sculpture to meditate on the nature of the Black body in our current moment of overwrought Black death. Taking as its starting point Claudia Rankine’s supposition that a Black body becomes an inhuman thing of value at the moment of death, and the libratory legacy of escape that is fundamental to Black culture, “Treasure” is an interdisciplinary performance of antinomies—the paradoxes of freedom and escape, presence and absence, life and death–that constitute blackness. The work is an urgent response to the overwhelming accumulation of online videos, social media feeds, and public acts projecting Black death as the defining characteristic of Black life. "Treasure" was developed with generous support from High Concept Labs Artist Sponsorship.

San Francisco FRESH Festival, image Robbie Sweeney
Treasure
performance | Robbie Sweeney
2016