Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground

Lyric Prince / Washington, DC — Jul 4, 2018

Lyric Prince, Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground, »Refiguring the Feminist Future«, 2018

Concept Text:

The title is from a Blind Willie Johnson song, and physically describes the two main characters (male, female) that merge into one (they). I will release a chapter a day about them, each named after a bone in the human body (eg sphenoid, vomer), that will give the daily installation theme of their story. This should take place over the space of the residency time frame.
For them: It is 2020. There is a young man and a young woman, Black like the night above and the earth below. Both start on a journey through life, and meet at a fork in the road. They become a singularity, a split atom reformed, and go on a search for their long lost father, Time.
A yorisha drips them in acid, and they go on a long trip, that never seems to end.
This is a good thing. It means that they have opened doors to the universe, that they can’t easily close. Or should close.
They become an ascetic, and wish to purify themself of all that is heavy and dense, and they go to the nearest thing that is a cave to them – an abandoned house. They sit and wait for their world to end. They float among the stars in the night of their den.

Eventually, they come to realize that it’s okay to be lost, and walk through doors of reality and time, to go into space, and to come back again. That it’s okay to change. They have the ability to step over the stream of time, cross over it, not get swept away like everyone else.

Bio:

Lyric Prince (1984) is an artist / writer that is based in Washington DC, and currently occupies her time with freelance writing for various art and culture blogs. Her daily practice consists of reading news, writing blog and social media posts, and connecting with people who share her passion for art and culture. Significant works from the past year include: Hyperallergic articles and a visual blog.

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