Deconstructed Anthems by Ekene Ijeoma. Photo credit: Katrina Barber

Deconstructed Anthems by Ekene Ijeoma. Photo credit: Theo Civitello

Wage Islands Immigrants by Ekene Ijeoma. Photo credit: Pratt Manhattan Gallery

The Refugee Project by Ekene Ijeoma.

The Refugee Project by Ekene Ijeoma.

Pan-African AIDS by Ekene Ijeoma. Photo credit: Isometric Studio

White Interference

Ekene Ijeoma is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He researches how sociopolitical systems unjustly affect people and develops sculptures, installations, and performances that poetically expose their inequalities or engage people in collaboratively changing them

Artist Bio

White Interference is an installation and performance in which dancers navigate the blurred boundaries of racialized landscapes through distorted radio frequency-driven soundscapes.

As described in the tech news website Techopedia: “Radio frequency interference is the conduction or radiation of radio frequency energy that causes an electronic or electrical device to produce noise that typically interferes with the function of an adjacent device. It also refers to the disruption of the normal functionality of a satellite due to the interference of radio astronomy. Radio frequency interference can disrupt and disturb the normal functioning of electronic and electrical devices.” In this work, radio waves and interferences will become a medium and metaphor for the invisible racial geographies and their tangible effects on Black life.

Discipline
Installation, Multimedia
Award Year
2019
Status

In Progress

Themes

Ijeoma-Ekene

Ekene Ijeoma

Brooklyn, NY

Ekene Ijeoma is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He researches how sociopolitical systems unjustly affect people and develops sculptures, installations, and performances that poetically expose their inequalities or engage people in collaboratively changing them.

His work has been presented by Onassis Foundation, Van Alen Institute, the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Contemporary Art Museum of Houston, Museum of the City of New York, The Kennedy Center, Annenberg Space for Photography, Neuberger Museum of Art, Storefront for Art and Architecture and Museum of Modern Art.

From 2019–2024, he was an Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and the Founder/Director of Poetic Justice, the first artist-led and arts-focused group at MIT Media Lab. His group researched how art can scale to that of structural injustice by developing large-scale phone, web, and street-based works that are public, community-driven, multisite, and networked.

Events