Legends Live Forever

Thanks to a last-minute email blast from my friend I was able to secure a vending booth at this year’s Black Joy Parade. I knew there was going to be a alot of people in attendance, so I wanted to create something that would stand out and be unforgettable. While it has always been a desire of mine, I only recently began researching how to make “soft sculpture”. Thankfully through my travels I saw multiple examples from other artists and I knew that what I wanted to do more so resembled furniture making. I partnered with a local upholstery company in Oakland and we were able to join forces and bring my vision to life.

‘Legends Live Forever: Sankofa Shrine’ is my first play sculpture installation that brings my world of Petal Block Art to life through uniquely cut and upholstered foam shapes. Within two weeks I was able to take a vision, recent artworks, and assemble a team to build out an installation centered on my love for Adinkra Symbols, structures, and black joy. Originally, I titled this piece ‘Legends Never Die’, but I decided to rename it to focus on the positive - our ancestors remain with us, they live through us.

The original Sketch combines includes a backdrop mural, turf grass, and soft sculpture pieces as the centerpiece. The red, black, green, and gold color scheme is the universal color scheme that unites African people throughout the world. The backdrop mural was originally completed in July 2020 in collaboration with Paint the Void Project during the summer of racial protests. Because the surface was is on plywood it’s essentially a mobile mural.

This installation is just the beginning of my custom play sculpture series. My Petal Block art style was always intended to be multi-disciplinary. This event was an experiment to see what play actually looks like. While I had ideas of connecting the pieces to make them stationary, I’m glad I didn’t. Within the first hour, we developed the experience into “try and make them stand up on its own” and the possibilities were endless.