bête noire

bête noire (2021) is a two day durational performance centered on sugarcane (“ahwedeɛ” in Twi), as both delight and vice. Using handmade beads made of black (red) sugarcane as a reference to African and Indigenous flesh, blood and bone, the performance interrogates commodification as it intercedes on behalf of the plant’s sacred nature. bête noire invites the public to act as co-intercessors through repetitive acts of adornment.