Dianne Smith  Art   

STUFF is a multimedia installation celebrating Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking choreopoem, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.  STUFF originally debuted in the i found god in myself exhibition in 2014 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY. In this light, we can view Smith’s abstract paper and sculptural installation as a shrine or sanctuary for the lady in green and as a site of reflection, healing, and reclamation. Enhancing this work are three new media pieces that depict the artist’s experience with domestic violence, share the personal stories of seven women who have had “stuff” taken from them, and visually captures “stuff” within the artist’s studio as she orates lady in green's text. Placed in a regal position overlooking the installation are seven wooden mannequin heads adorned in African fabric. Each figure represents the lady in green in varying forms as well as the women captured in the new media works. Thereby, lady in green’s story becomes one that represents the experiences of countless women who are taking back the joy, the power, and the peace that belongs to them. The site-specific installation STUFF in the Milstein lobby was a part of the Shange Magic Project, a series of events and experiences that celebrates Ntozake Shange’s life and legacy, organized by Barnard’s Africana Studies Program and the Barnard Library and Academic Information Services, taking place over two years from Fall 2019 through Spring 2021. The exhibition was curayed by Souleo.