Oyeku
A film by Saudade Toxosi with music by Daisuke Tanabe.
January 9 - January 31, 2021 EXTENDED through February 14 (Because we LOVE this piece!)
The film will be played on a continuous loop from 6pm-6am every night.
Cross Pollination Art Lab, 2450 Piedmont Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30324
You can view the film from the sidewalk on the corner of Piedmont Rd NE and Morosgo Dr NE
(the viewing window faces Piedmont).
Oyeku is a metaphysical principle established in an oral tradition called Ifa. Oyeku means the end of a cycle. These cycles are all varied and exist in all spheres of life and death simultaneously.
The circular viewing is adapted by the concept and practice of the Aztec’s Obsidian mirror that reflects images and fates of all that is seen and unseen. It communicates sacred message to humans.
This film is a prayer; It is ancestral support towards the end of a cycle of death while moving forward to new beginnings and peace.
Saudade Toxosi is a multidisciplinary artist and image curator working in painting, charcoal drawings, photography, mixed media, sound design and assemblage. For more than two decades, Toxosi has engaged in a meditative curatorial process of selecting and organizing found images that explore and articulate her thoughts about the “New Indigenous African” experience in the United States as well as all people of color around the world. These image pairings through her prevailing curatorial project Equinox 1600 have garnered attention from artists, filmmakers and cinematographers and have informed some of the most important visual and narrative statements of our time notably “Kahlil Joseph’s “Lemonade” 2016, "Fly Paper" 2017,and Arthur Jafa’s "Love is the Message and the Message is Death" 2016 where Toxosi worked directly with the filmmakers. In 2018 Saudade presented her own film entitled “Oyeku” which was featured alongside Henry Davis, Faith Childs-Davis, Arthur Jafa, Michelle Blade and Karon Davis as part of Kahlil Joseph's solo exhibition "New Suns" at Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht, Netherlands. By working alongside these directors Saudade has been personally requested aid in visual research for Eliot Rausch’s “The Moment After” 2018, Eliot Rausch’s “The Moment After” 2018, Jake and Royko “Desert” 2018, Jasmine Green ”Bad Habits” 2019, Matilda Finn’s “Today” 2020 and Arthur Jafa’s “Wash Us in the Blood” 2020. www.stoxosi.com