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The pictures presented here were taken of a few pieces of artwork from an exhibition that is on display at the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (LCVA).

Following is part of the message from curators Jay Simple and Emma Steinkraus that introduces the exhibition at the LCVA.

“How do artists interrogate history? What kinds of new historical records can artists create? The artists in Asterisks in the Grand Narrative of History use diverse strategies to resist and remake historical narratives in pursuit of a more just world. The curation of their work is informed by Saidiya Hartman’s theory of recombinant narratives that ‘‘loop the strands” of incommensurate accounts’ to weave together the past, present and future. As in her work, these artists draw on a variety of sources, from pop culture to family photos to government archives, to illuminate the ways individual stories and historical forces are intertwined.

“Many of the works in this exhibition defamiliarize well-known historical moments through juxtaposition, cropping or shifts in scale. Archival imagery is handled inventively as artists cut, weave and collage photographic source material together into something wholly new. These works engage our bodies and senses through sound, video and installation.”