Gazing at the Moon: Solange Knowles
By Victoria Editor
Solange Piaget Knowles is peerless as a prolific performance artist and director. Her work marries sociopolitical concern with spiritual consciousness through modern abstraction, renaissance-inspired garments, and sculptural lighting.
To make gods of men is a critical mistake we must avoid in the current social climate. Humanity may not be at its worst, but its worst is more visible than it has ever been historically. Creating art (and good art at that) in a world that's becoming increasingly difficult to thrive in is a feat achieved by few. Solange Knowles’ work is a powerful tribute to our ancestors, particularly the maternal, and a message to all of us skinfolk to hold our heads high. In recent years, Solange has reinvented herself as a performance artist and director by illustrating lyrics from her most recent album (A Seat at the Table) and her sociopolitical concerns through modern abstraction, renaissance-inspired garments, and sculptural lighting.
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In "An Ode To" at the Guggenheim in 2017, the artist blended song and variegated choreography with geometric fixtures reminiscent of Joan Miro and minimalist uniform. Knowles banned cell phones to reclaim presentness for the audience, while horn players, saxophonists, and trumpeters filled three levels with organic sound. In a white-walled environment, color was an important element. It represented a white world where black people still occupy and dominate spaces she values. “All I care about is seeing your faces in this light. I don't care much about the institutions," she said from the first floor of the rotunda. “Choosing the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to hold the performance reinforced the declaration that [we] belong in ‘these spaces.’”
As an incredibly intuitive person, Solange has also offered up her vision for veneration with Metatronia (Metatron's Cube). This stunning performance in collaboration with Japanese retailer Uniqlo was executed with a dual-level modular sculpture. It explored the "process and mapping of creation" and "the relationship of movement and architecture as a meditation." Dancers traveled pristine stairs with fluid movement and ducked in and out of view in unison to music scored with assistance by composer John Carroll Kirby.
Solange's interpretation of fashion and textile is artful, as well. During a late-night television performance in 2016, "Rise" and "Weary" were performed under a warm red light in front of a gorgeous red sphere representative of the interconnection of femininity. Inspired by the year's blood moon, blood represented the passage of new life, while the trio of women connected by garments with draping between them strode fluidly with the moon (a symbol of feminine energy) behind them. Knowles has been known to softly yet boldly flex her understanding of fashion design like this to not only appease the eye but to call to the mind the spirit of our culture as expressed by the people who originated it.
Solange Piaget Knowles will go down not just in the creative reserve of black history, but as an American pioneer who daringly combined art forms as if they were a singular entity native to her. Her work reminds us of our place in the world and challenges black artists of all mediums to let their work take the lead in a society that wants us forgotten and erased.