Rainbow Serpent creates pioneering work at the intersection of multimedia art, emerging technologies, and African cosmologies.
Artistic Programs
Rainbow Serpent’s suite of programs advance Black LGBTQ culture through the power of African cosmologies interwoven with cutting-edge technologies, innovative healing protocols, and a wide spectrum of art forms. Our work has been experienced by audiences across the country and includes live performance, film, public artwork, curation, sculpture, and installation.
Learn more about our offerings below.
Live Performance
The Four World Ages (2023) draws on Nigerian-Igbo myth to tell the history of humanity as it unfolds through four eras: the Age of Universal Oneness, the Age of Self-Awareness, the Age of Civilization, and our current Age of Chaos. This piece features four dancers adorned with body paint as they enact this sweeping saga, and it employs dynamic projections, innovative light design, and spatial augmented reality components that blend artificial intelligence, computer vision, motion capture technology, custom-built software, and real-time 3D rendering. The world premiere of the live performance took place on July 29, 2023, at The Yard in Martha's Vineyard, MA.
Sculpture
Myth-Science of the Gatekeepers (2024) is a collection of 16 life-size glass statues of Black queer Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) deities. Providing a modern take on Kemetic granodiorite statues, the busts were made through a lost wax casting process and affixed with headpieces fabricated with glass blowing and hot sculpting techniques. This project is a revival and expansion of the traditions of gatekeepers, an ancient African lineage of queer spirit workers, artisans, and diviners, and it presents to the world a new Afro-diasporic spiritual system. This series opens at the Pittsburgh Glass Center on Friday, May 3, 2024, from 6-9 pm, and it runs until July 28, 2024.
Film
Obi Mbu (The Primordial House) (2021) is a 30 minute experimental dance film that is centered in the Primordial House, located in the Sirius star system, from which creation emerges. Eke-Nnechukwu, the Igbo high god, and Chukwu, Her masculine counterpart, exist in perfect unity in and as the Blackness of space. Although They are dual aspects of the Primordial Androgynous deity, Chukwu sections off a part of space exclusively for Himself in the form of a sacred pillared chamber in the heart of the Primordial House. He engages in a secret work by dancing in and out of this chamber, which sets off a chain of irrevocable circumstances that lead to our current world and condition. Obi Mbu is currently on a national tour and has screened in more than a dozen cities across the country.
Public Art
Rainbow Serpent’s public art installations have reached millions of people across the country. We have created public artwork in the following cities: Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Cleveland, OH; Columbus, OH; Denver, CO; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Pittsburgh, PA; and Tampa, FL. We strive to imbue public spaces with the rich multidimensional perspectives of African cosmologies. We use each installation as an opportunity to revive and showcase the poetic perspectives of these endangered traditions.
Curation
Rainbow Serpent celebrates the work of Black and LGBTQ artists through our curatorial projects and events. We have presented the work of over 25 artists in major venues to build and expand the pipeline of opportunities for emerging artists from our communities.
Installation
Reconstructing the Primordial House is a multimedia installation exploring West African creation myths from Dogon and Igbo historical contexts. It attempts a mythical reconstruction of Obi Mbu (the Primordial House of Igbo cosmology), a symbol of the androgynous blackness of space in its original pure state of monolithic harmony. The museum installation is on view at the North Carolina Museum of Art October 6, 2022 - December 31, 2024.