For African-American artist Ayana V. Jackson, born in New Jersey in 1977, photography serves both historical and political purposes. Since the beginning of her career, Jackson has revived or invented Black female figures who each carry stories charged with symbolism.
Some of her inventions include the fantastic Black naiads from the series “From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya,” named after the Detroit techno and electro duo who created this new mythology. According to the legend, these beings lived in the depths of the Atlantic, the daughters of pregnant African women who were thrown overboard by slave traders during the transatlantic slave trade – a horror that occurred frequently. Jackson captures their imaginary portraits, giving them the scale and majesty of sacred effigies, and incorporates references to the arts and cosmologies of the West African peoples who were victims of the slave trade.
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