Beschreibung:

Michaela Yearwood-DanBritishb.19942 GD 4 U titled (lower margin)acrylic, tempera and ink on paper60.5 by 45cm., 23¾ by 17¾in.framed: 67.2 by 51.6cm., 26½ by 20¼in.Condition reportFor further information on the condition of this lot please contact africanctp@sothebys.com ProvenanceDonated by the artist and Tiwani ContemporaryCatalogue noteMichaela Yearwood-Dan’s work reflects on subjectivity and individual identity as forms of self-determination. Whilst her work may be underpinned by an expansive and multivalent repertoire of cultural signifiers borrowing freely from blackness, healing rituals, flora, texting, acrylic-nails, gold-hoops, carnival culture, these reference points enable her to present and privilege the variance of her own individual experience. As such, her work refuses to be framed by narrow expectations of racial or gendered notions of collective identity and history. She defamiliarizes many of those reference points in her work resisting the clichés and strictures of representation. Recently the artist has been thinking about the priorities for affirming spaces of self and collective actualisation, specifically POC and queer space(s), community needs and desires, that include her own. Projected and inscribed upon the paintings, extracts of Yearwood-Dan’s experiences, influences, personal thoughts and questions commingle with abstracted and botanical gestures and marks that border, lead towards and give way to speculative clearings; spaces and gaps that have the capacity to be filled with utopic imaginings. The work remain vested in holding and debating the real-life politics and cultural demands of femme, black and queer individuals in the world coming together as communities, manifesting and nurturing critical, safe and joyous environments.