I Promise To Burn Forever
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, WE ARE HERE BECAUSE OF THOSE THAT ARE NOT/BLACKTRANSARCHIVE.COM, 2020-2023 (video game still). Courtesy of the artist and Public Gallery, London.
I PROMISE TO BURN FOREVER
September 6 - October 11
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley
Agartuu Inor
Curated by Sati Varghese Mac
I Promise to Burn Forever brings together the alternative archival practices of London/Berlin-based artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Minnesota-based artist, Agartuu Inor in response to a growing technological presence that reduces and divides our memory.
In her interactive games, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley intervenes in the course of history for those who are ready. Through digitally transmitted wisdom of Black trans ancestors who were buried too soon, she creates avenues to heal these severed relationships and restores agency in how they are remembered. She begins this process that is reanimated by each visitor, creating a game world for resurrection, rest, joy, and self inquiry, where the player is accountable to their participation within and beyond the gallery.
Agartuu Inor’s installation summons an afro-indigenous landscape through the algorithmically generated Barakah Garden. Sculptural references from East-African Islamic architecture form the Barakah Library, a memorial archive filled with Black and Indigenous texts for liberation and healing. The library’s interface asks the next lender to contact its previous borrower for access, creating a web of decentralized study that is facilitated by each book’s digital footprint. The archive becomes not only the books, but also the connections they make.
These emerging archives overlap with the “anarchival,” described by artist and scholar Carine Zaayman as those practices that seek the “full sensorial experience of lived life – its non-linear temporality, unrealized potentials, and immaterial networks of intersubjectivity.” The anarchival method uncovers moments of trust where the unexpected allows us to stray together from the path of common knowledge, locating what was marked to be forgotten, and what must have been lived, because you are living in its lineage now.
To these archivists, your life is precious, your confusion is instructive, and your anger is a sacred burning beacon. They know what it is like to call out for your ancestors while surrounded by proof of their absence. They know of captive tongues, held because the words weren’t there, or a deal had been made with fear. They know so intimately of the centuries long silences that have rotted holes in our visions of a collective. And they know of our hearts longing for each other, ready to love entire worlds into existence.
They ask, how will you see yourself in this story?
EXHIBIT PROGRAMMING
Saturday, September 6, 5pm - 10pm:
Opening Reception
Thursday, September 18th, 6pm:
Free community screening + discussion in collaboration with Sabrina Ford of Dream Chambers Public Access
Thursday, September 25th, 6pm:
An artist talk with Agartuu Inor (virtual option)
Open Gallery Hours through October 11
Thursday: 1pm - 5pm
Fridays: 1pm - 5pm
Saturdays: 2pm - 6pm
Public Functionary Main Gallery
1500 Jackson Street NE, Studio 144, Minneapolis
ARTIST BIOS
Agartuu Inor is a Minnesota based artist exploring where ancestral knowledge meets experimental tech, creating spaces for people to learn, rest, and be in community. She sees reading as a slow, intentional form of resistance. As an archivist, she focuses on Afro-Indigenous imaginaries and innovating creative tradition. Grounded in the Islamic concept of Barakah, her installation work draws from East African mosque design and beadwork rooted in Oromo creative traditions. She weaves together a memorial garden, a fountain, and a library to hold space for intersectional mourning, remembrance, and connection.
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley
I CREATE WORK THAT SEEKS TO ARCHIVE BLACK TRANS EXPERIENCE. I USE TECHNOLOGY TO IMAGINE OUR LIVES IN ENVIRONMENTS THAT CENTRE OUR BODIES...
THOSE LIVING, THOSE THAT HAVE PASSED AND THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN FORGOTTEN
YOU THINK YOU CAME HERE TO ENJOY SOME ART
YOU ARE MISTAKEN
THIS IS ABOUT YOU
HOW YOU FEEL IS THE MEDIUM I AM WORKING WITH
YOU MAY FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE
YOU MAY FEEL REPRESENTED
BUT YOU WON'T FEEL FORGOTTEN
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (b. 1995, London) lives and works between Berlin and London. She/they has presented recent solo exhibitions at institutions such as LAS Foundation, Halle am Berghain, Berlin (2024); Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (2024); Studio Voltaire, London (2024); Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (2024); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2023); Villa Arson, Nice (2023); HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin (2023); FACT, Liverpool (2022); Project Arts Centre, Dublin (2022); Skänes konstförening, Malmö (2022); Arebyte Gallery, London (2021); QUAD, Derby (2021); Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea (2020). Her/their work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as Art Museum at the University of Toronto (2024); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul (2023); Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York (2023); Das Centre Pompidou, Metz (2023); Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin (2022); Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (2021); Les Urbaines, Lausanne (2019); and Barbican, London (2018). Her/their work has been the subject of screenings and performances at institutions including Tate Modern, London (2024, 2020); MoMA, New York (2023); DePaul Art Museum, Chicago (2023); Serpentine, London (2022); Spike Island, Bristol (2022); and South London Gallery (2022).