25th Jun, 2025 19:00
Modern & Contemporary Art
44
Ayana Vellissia Jackson (United States of America 1977-)
The Romance of Sovereignty
archival pigment print
Artwork date: 2016
Edition: from an edition of 8 + 3APs
Exhibited: Brundyn Arts and Culture, Franschhoek, 'The Becoming Subject', 17 February to 24 March 2025.
Literature: 'Ayana Jackson: The Becoming Subject'. (2025). [Exhibition catalogue]. Brundyn Arts and Culture, Franschhoek. 17 February to 24 March 2025, and example from the edition illustrated, unpaginated.
Exchange Rates*: USD 3257.41 – 4343.21
EURO 2960.19 – 3946.92
GBP 2491.17 – 3321.56
R60,000 - R80,000
Buyers Premium
archival pigment print
Artwork date: 2016
Edition: from an edition of 8 + 3APs
Exhibited: Brundyn Arts and Culture, Franschhoek, 'The Becoming Subject', 17 February to 24 March 2025.
Literature: 'Ayana Jackson: The Becoming Subject'. (2025). [Exhibition catalogue]. Brundyn Arts and Culture, Franschhoek. 17 February to 24 March 2025, and example from the edition illustrated, unpaginated.
Exchange Rates*: USD 3257.41 – 4343.21
EURO 2960.19 – 3946.92
GBP 2491.17 – 3321.56
(1)
45.5 x 30.5 cm; framed size: 47.5 x 32.5 x 4.5 cm
Provenance:
Private collection, Cape Town.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
The three Ayana Jackson artworks included on this auction form a part of the series To Kill or Allow to Live, created in 2016 while the artist was living in Paris, and form part of her broader investigation into 19th and early 20th century portraiture. Drawing inspiration from archival material and family photographs; including images of her great-grandmother, Jackson reimagines how Black bodies have been framed through the colonial gaze and offers a corrective through carefully staged, performative portraits.
Born from a moment of personal and political reckoning, the title of the series references political philosopher Achille Mbembe’s discussion of sovereignty; specifically the state’s power to decide who may live and who must die. Jackson began the series in response to a U.S. grand jury’s decision to acquit the perpetrator in a high-profile case of police brutality, a verdict that left her paralyzed by grief and anger. She turned to performance as a form of protest, staging a movement study in which her blindfolded, stumbling, and dodging figure becomes a vessel for resistance. In these images, her body appears to evade an unseen force – dodging the very bullet of justice that should have protected her. The series additionally draws a parallel between the traumatic history of lynching in post-slavery America and the sharp rise in police violence against Black Americans during the final years of the Obama presidency. A timepiece dangling from her waist becomes a symbol of history repeating itself.
Mtha Poni
COLLECTIONS:
The artist is represented in numerous international collections, notably, The Studio Museum, New York; Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle.
The overal condition is excellent.
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Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 25th Jun, 2025
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