Re-Membering is the Responsibility of the Living--a Taja Lindley solo exhibition

September 6^th – 29^th

Opening Reception, September 6^th 6pm – 10pm 

Practice gallery is pleased to present “Re-Membering is the Responsibility of the Living,” a solo show by Taja Lindley. In this body of work, Lindley draws parallels between discarded materials and the violent treatment of Black people in the United States. Black plastic bags are repurposed to create an ornate environment, as well as the costumes and performances in the video work on display. Informed by her burlesque practice, she employs beauty as reverence to transform what has been considered disposable into something sacred. The immersive environment creates a space for the viewer to enter into contemplation of both overwhelming loss, rituals of re-membering, as well as the possibility and responsibility for transformation. In her performance, Lindley infuses her materials with memory, ancestral healing practices, and the choreography of protest in order to re-member and honor the Black lives taken by police violence, as well as channel the energy of rage and grief into social change. 

Much like the genesis of this work, Lindley continues to root her creative process in research about the Black lives that have been stolen. Lindley uses movement, text, installation, ritual and burlesque to create immersive works about freedom, healing, and pleasure, to envision a world where Black lives matter.

Taja Lindley is a memory worker, healer and an activist based in New York City. Her performances, films, and installations have been featured at Brooklyn Museum; La Mama Theater; New York Live Arts; the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University; the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Carver Museum in Austin, Texas; the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California; and more. She is the founder of Colored Girls Hustle and a member of Echoing Ida and Harriet’s Apothecary. In addition to being an artist, Lindley is actively engaged in social movements as a writer, consultant, and facilitator. Most recently, she served as a Sexual and Reproductive Justice Consultant at DOHMH, co-facilitating a community-driven process that created The New York City Standards for Respectful Care at Birth. She continues her work at the NYC Health Department as the current Public Artist in Residence, a program of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.