Artist Tiona Nekkia McClodden to Present New Work at BAM

The Trace of an Implied Presence is a new multi-channel installation work by visual artist, filmmaker, and curator Tiona Nekkia McClodden that will take place in The Rudin Family Gallery at BAM Strong.

The work is a result of McClodden's deep dive within the BAM Hamm Archives-in particular the archives for Dance Black America (DBA), the festival presented April 21-24, 1983. Dance Black America was one of the most dynamic presentations of dance in the US, presenting legendary Black dancers, choreographers, scholars, and dance companies through films, live presentations, panels, and workshops. The festival was the collaboration of festival directors Mikki Shepard (lead curator) and co-organizer Patricia Kerr Ross (deceased), who brought in the support of the State University of New York. The weekend explored the range of dance in America centering Blackness and the African Diaspora over the span of 300 years, showcasing the richly diverse traditions of African-American dance within several categories: "Black Dance on Film", "Black Social + Street Dance", and "Black Concert Dance." Participants ranged from Alvin Ailey to Chuck Davis to Garth Fagan. The gathering's most unique contribution, however, was its inclusion of younger dance ensembles like the Rock Steady Crew and the Jazzy Jumpers, a group of teenage girls whose exhibition of acrobatic jump-roping became one of the highlights of the festival.

"My work explores shard ideas, values, and beliefs within the African diaspora, or what I call Black mentifact," says McClodden.

McClodden here creates an abstraction of, and "artistic addendum" to, the original presentation of the Dance Black America program. The multi-channel installation, presented in three parts, will feature a master cut of Black dance on film and video; dancers, choreographers, and dance company representatives who participated in the original 1983 program featured in a series of film portraits; and the presentation of the Philly Bop, a Black social dance at risk of fading away.

With this work, McClodden focuses on gestural-based movement, citation, and how these work within and through the body across time and form as a continuation of her practice--one that is invested in the cultural retention of African Diasporic ideas across formal methods and medium.

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