Roscoe Mitchell and Camae Ayewa, who performs as Moor Mother, are among the most innovative performers and improvisors of their respective generations. Mitchell, a composer and multi-instrumentalist, co-founded the world renowned Art Ensemble of Chicago and helped to establish the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Moor Mother is a politically charged musician, poet, sound artist, and community activist. She works across disciplines as a member of the Black Quantum Futurism Collective. For this performance in the Art Institute’s Fullerton Hall, Moor Mother and Roscoe Mitchell perform together as a duo.
This concert is presented partly in response to Simone Leigh’s Dunham (2017). Leigh’s practice incorporates sculpture, video, and installation; all are informed by her ongoing exploration of black female subjectivity and ethnography. Her objects often employ materials and forms traditionally associated with African art; her performance-influenced installations create spaces where historical precedent and self-determination comingle. Through her investigations of visual overlaps between cultures, time periods, and geographies, she confronts and examines ideas of the female body, race, beauty, and community.
With her sculpture Dunham (2017), Leigh engages with the legacy of dancer and choreographer Katherin Dunham, credited for helping introduce African and Caribbean movement styles into the modernist dance vocabulary. For several decades, Dunham was based in East St. Louis, Illinois, where the artist, activist, and educator established the Performing Arts Training Center in 1967. Dunham’s legacy and influence lives on today.
The performance is presented as part of Artists Connect, a series of programs at the Art Institute that highlight the creative process. Artists, poets, dancers, and musicians engage with works of art, making connections to their own practice and inspiring new ways of understanding the Art Institute’s collection.
Presented with the Empty Bottle
Performers
Roscoe Mitchell
Courtesy of the artist.
Moor Mother
Courtesy of the artist.
Persons with disabilities who would like to request an accessibility accommodation for an Art Institute program are encouraged to send an email to access@artic.edu two weeks in advance of the program.
Sponsors
Support for public programs is provided in part by the Woman’s Board of the Art Institute of Chicago.
