Sondra Perry constructs multifaceted narratives that explore the imagining, or imaging, of blackness throughout history.

Often taking her own life as a point of departure, she makes works that revolve specifically around black American experiences and the ways in which technology and identities are entangled.

Her use of digital tools and platforms, such as Chroma key blue screens, 3D avatars, open source software, and footage found online, reflects critically on representation itself.

Perry’s investigations demonstrate that digital technology functions as an attribute of power, and another tool that reimagines the possibilities of networked collectivity. As the artist says:

‘I’m interested in how blackness is a technology, changing and adapting, through the constant surveillance and oppression of black folks across the diaspora since the 1600s. Unmediated seeing isn’t a thing’.

Published on occasion of the exhibition, Sondra Perry: Typhoon Coming On at Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (6 March – 20 May 2018).