Kevin Diallo
Blue

The ocean belongs to the semantics of black suffering, from the history of the Atlantic Slave trade to the recent tragedies of African migrants dying in the Mediterranean Sea while seeking refuge on the shores of Europe; black bodies are intrinsically linked with the maritime.

From May - September 2019 artist Kevin Diallo crossed the Pacific Ocean on a 40ft sailboat from San Diego USA, to Sydney, Australia accompanied by three friends. ‘Blue’ illustrates how the artist attempted to reclaim the ocean as a space to practice resistance and healing.

The work utilises photography, moving image, installation and sound to situate black normative existence within a space that typically denies blackness – and how the trauma of blackness’ relationship to the ocean can be radically altered to express freedom, joy and opportunity.

Kevin Diallo is a Sydney-based artist originally from the Ivory-Coast whose practice suggests Blackness’ relationship to the future. Rooted in post-colonial discourse and race politics, Diallo’s work investigates how institutionalised ideas of Black and African authenticity can be deconstructed and challenged by mean of juxtaposition through a variety of mediums, more particularly with alternative photographic processes, installations, sculptures and new media.