Shamar Watt, "BLACK GHOST WHITE DOVE"

An in-situ creation for the Nomadic Nights of the Fondation Cartier, as part of the SECONDARY exhibition by Matthew Barney.
As part of Matthew Barney’s exhibition-event SECONDARY presented at the Fondation Cartier from June 8 to September 8, 2024, the Nomadic Nights invite 4 performers from his latest video installation SECONDARY to each present in-situ creations.

Tonight, artist and performer Shamar Watt presents BLACK GHOST WITH DOVE. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, raised in Miami, USA, and now living in New York, Shamar Watt proudly traces his heritage back to the Maroons, who descends from Africans that freed themselves from slavery and rebelled against the British Colony of Jamaica while establishing communities of free black people in the island’s mountainous interior. For several years, he has been carrying out an artistic work that combines his multicultural roots with cosmic reflections. How does the ontology of darkness resonate in the world and the infinite universe? And what are the correlations between quantum phenomenons of the Holy Ghost and socio-political economic struggles towards freedom?

The performance BLACK GHOST WHITE DOVE offers an immersive visual and sonic journey into the psychosocial realms of micro-realities experienced by a Millennial Maroon Jamaican American Black being: for Watt, these philosophical questions lie somewhere within the liminal space of life-death, light-dark, where binaries lose their distinction.

Creation and interpretation: Shamar Watt.

Shamar Watt is an interdisciplinary artist whose work traverses psychosocial planes of black realities with a pursuit to liberate the body and take to task the Cartesian state of mind. He questions the correlations of black being(ness) and the application of quantum theories. Watt challenges the way we experience performance through space, sound and the body, and interrogates forms and aesthetics of spiritual entertainment. As a performer, he has worked with many artists including Nora Chipaumire since 2015 and Matthew Barney for SECONDARY in 2023.