Solo exhibition of Alexis Peskine
0ctober Gallery, 2021
Alexis Peskine’s signature large-scale mixed media ‘portraits’ of the African diaspora, are created through the intricate hammering of nails, of different depths and widths into coffee and mud stained wood. The portraits, finished with a layer of gold leaf, illuminate the space shining a light on the powerful figures they represent. Fire Figures explored the frustration of the African diaspora which continues to face systems of violence, racism and displacement. Peskine has ‘always felt the fire of injustice’ throughout his life, a fire which fuels his works. For him, fire also represents an opportunity for change, a change his subjects are striving for but which has yet to come.
Peskine says, ‘’Our experiences are not validated. We’re invisible. I’ve lived it, we’ve always lived it. In Fire Figures I am expressing resistance and transcendence. It is my homage to resilience; my works elevate us.’’.
For the exhibition, the artist also created a site specific façade of a wooden cabin in the gallery serving as a reminder of the enclosed spaces slaves were forced to live and travel in.
