tether
Two-channel HD video / 16 minutes
tether is a video piece that meditates on kelechi agwuncha's subconscious childhood memories of performance. It creates a new ritual that bridges their recollections of playing tetherball with the vivid experience of witnessing traditional Ojiọnu Igbo masquerade figures, embodying an uncensored reality. This multi-layered spiritual performance also reflects on tethering as a meditation on the power dynamics of self-imposed restraint on the bod.
credits:
Directed by kelechi agwuncha
Camera Assistance by Jun!yi Min
Featuring original voiceover & poem by Rohan Ayinde
Musical Score by Eva Marie Gonzalez Ruskiewicz and kelechi agwuncha
link ->
references:
2.5.6.
01 Cover of Gene Siskel Film Center Gazette, Vol. 51 Issue 6
02 Drawing Restraint 2, 1988, documentation still, ©Matthew Barney
03 “Unmasking the Masquerade: Counterideologies and Contemporary Practices” within In West African Masking Traditions and
Diaspora Masquerade Carnivals: History, Memory, and Transnationalism, Raphael Chijioke Njoku, 2020
04 When the Moon Waxes Red, 1991, Trinh T. Minh-ha
05 Ukpuru Tumblr Archive, Arochukwu Ekpo masquerade, 1988
06 “Nigerian Masquerade Scares Everybody”, 2015, YouTube
07 “Song of A Law Abiding Citizen”, by June Jordan as featured in WNYC TV show Poetry Spots, date unspecified
screenings:
credit: photographs by Arlene Mejorado / 2022credit: photographs by Arlene Mejorado / 2022credit: photographs by Arlene Mejorado / 2022credit: photographs by Arlene Mejorado / 2022
2024
Jupiter Magazine, No One Is Going To Mythologize My Life Film Series & Talk hosted at Blanc Gallery, Chicago, Illinois +
Garage Theater curated by Kristyn McKinney, hosted at Talking Dolls Gallery, Detroit, Michigan +
2023
Black Harvest Film Festival, Chicago Illinois +
Afrikana Independent Film Festival, Richmond, Virginia +
Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe, New Mexico +
South Parade x REDEYE, Art-O-Rama, Marseille, France +
Vector Festival, Toronto, Canada +
REDEYE, Intercultural Solidarity and Multicultural Identities Group Film Screening, London, UK +
2022
Bonfire, UCSD MFA Group Show, Los Angeles, CA
additional credits:
Rohan Ayinde is an interdisciplinary artist based between London and Chicago. His work is centered around creating “otherwise” potentials (Ashon Crawley), and in so doing breaking down and simultaneously reconfiguring the ideological architectures that shape our daily and generational lives. Most recently, his work is shaped by a consideration for translation and the ways one might translate radical ideas into structures/forms/worlds that we can engage with and inhabit materially. Most of his work stems from a dance with the possibility opened up by the logics of black holes, specifically when read in conversation with the historical and material conditions of blackness.
Eva Marie Gonzalez Ruskiewicz (they/them) is a PhD student in UC San Diego’s department of Communication, with a specialization in Critical Gender Studies. They work at the intersection of transgender studies and performance studies, focusing primarily on trans- and queer dancers of color. Prior to graduate school, Eva was a public school music teacher. Outside of the academy, they are a singer-songwriter, beginner ballet dancer, and cat dad.