Friday July 26, 6:30 – 8:30pm
Scrapbook: Le’Andra LeSeur
Durational performance 

 

Image courtesy of the artist


“I’m blue black. Just blue. Just black. Nothing more. We all carry blues. It’s how we interpret these blues that bring out different hues. Transforming in transition. […]” – LL

Microscope is very pleased to present the debut of There are other hues of blue, a live durational performance by Le’Andra LeSeur taking place as part of our current exhibition “Scrapbook (or, Why Can’t We Live Together)”.

The work finds LeSeur seated in front of a projected blue screen reading notes she made in a stream of consciousness. The performance — which is approximately 120 minutes, or the length of a feature film — addresses the way language is used with others or ourselves in moments of emotional distress caused by discrimination and systems of oppression. There are other hues of blue is inspired by Derek Jarman’s last film “Blue” (1993).

“Scrapbook (or, Why Can’t We Live Together)” continues through August 19th.
More information HERE


Le’Andra LeSeur
“There are other hues of blue”, 2019
Durational Performance 

There are other hues of blue is a durational performance using spoken word as a way to reference streams of consciousness. Within my practice, I’ve continuously focused on the hazardous effects that racially induced trauma bring to communities of color.

One of the effects that I’m interested in exploring relates directly to language. How do we speak to each other and most importantly ourselves during times of distress? There is a want to retreat and refrain from speaking in order to heal but there is also a sense of empowerment attached to speaking freely of yourself and your predicament in times of distress. 

In Derek Jarman’s “Blue”, we see this first hand as he reflects on his life while met with the realization of death from his battle with AIDS. While language is something that can disassociate feelings, it is also a tool used to connect and free each one of us from feelings that we may not understand.

There are other hues of blue is my attempt at using language to better understand my place and purpose during times of racial distress. As I continue to reflect on the dynamics stacked against black women in America, I am also continuously pushing myself to speak on the very things that have indirectly created this emotional distress in my own life no matter how large or small those things may be. — LL


Suggested Donation $6

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Le’Andra LeSeur (b. 1989 in Bronx, NY) is an interdisciplinary artist working and living in Jersey City, NJ. Her work explores black identity informed by the effects that regulated systems of oppression have on black women, specifically. Through visual media, installation, and performance, her hope is to reclaim and dismantle stereotypes surrounding black female identity through the reworking of conventional art forms and mundane objects – ultimately reshaping the context of spaces where the lives of the oppressed are silenced and celebrated in the same breath. LeSeur was the recipient of the 2018 Time-Based Category Award and Juried Grand Prize at Artprize 10 in Grand Rapids, MI for her piece, “brown, carmine, and blue”. She was the most recent recipient of the SCAD40 prize at SCAD’s deFINE ART festival in 2019. Her recent lectures include SCAD, the RISD Museum of Art, and The Brooklyn Museum with Marilyn Minter in conjunction with The Tory Burch Foundation. Her recent residencies include NARS Foundation and Marble House Project. Outside of creating her own work, LeSeur has made notable contributions to the arts through her active participation in curating exhibitions and workshops for women of color that speak to the power in existing through expression in a world that shuns black women for these exact actions.

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Microscope Gallery Event Series 2019 is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).