Autobiography of an Archive

Images from Wake Up, a collaboration between Isaiah Lopaz & New Past

"Collage is about encounters. It is about bringing ideas into conversation with one another. It is multidimensional and interdisciplinary. The order created from these dimensions are arranged by some intuitive grasp of how the world might be put together. Collage not only declares the continuity of realms, it also declares the contiguity of realms, and carries the implication of life beyond." (Rosa Cran 2017).

In May of 2024, I founded Black Visual Grammar, a generative mobile archive which utilizes collage and exhibition practices that center Black perspectives on an array of themes and subjects. As a local of Berlin and Brussels, I had the opportunity to attend and participate in several curated conversations. These events brought people together and laid foundations for friendships, collaborations, and new initiatives. After years of having the privilege of attending and contributing to  conversations in museums, theaters, and universities, I began to ask myself: how could I create a forum which dissolves the boundaries between institutions, experts, and audiences. A space where multiple points of view are regarded as having equal value, and where methods of inquiry and presentation are seeds for future encounters?

What I began dreaming of was an archive comprised of multilocal, intergenerational, multicultural Black perspectives - a place where conversations were translated through image-making and materials. As my mother often instructs, ‘seek and ye shall find’. Collage, a core element of my practice, answered this inquiry. Collage speaks several visual languages which do not require years of study or practice. Collage invites everything that a person knows to interact with and create meaning from unknown, found, images and materials happened upon. Collage is a poetic medium capable of traversing matrixes of Blackness. Inspired by critical sociological methods such as photovoice and autoethnography, and in possession of a collection of over a thousand images, scissors, tape, glue sticks, board, and other materials, I organized the first edition of Black Visual Grammar at Each One Teach One in Berlin. Contributors were delighted to have access to a library of images, and assorted materials. During the workshop there were periods of conversation and silence, mutual support and exchange, and the telling of stories through words and collage-making.

At days end I was asked: ‘Will there be more workshops? Could the workshop be longer… could it be for a whole weekend?! Why don’t you turn this into an artist residency?’ In four month’s time, Black Visual Grammar unfolded in three editions, held respectively in Berlin, Rotterdam, and Cologne. As this archive expands with new queries, and offers a series of courses and seminars, I look forward to traveling with Black Visual Grammar to hold space for further narratives, records, and inquiries.