Sights & Sounds: Jebi Labembika
Common Discourse is a project designed to help others (and ourselves) think through creativity, focus, and intentional work—from Alex Tan & Alice Otieno.
Every Tuesday we share words from a few ideas, a quote from somebody else, and links worth sharing. On Fridays we invite a guest to share images from their camera roll and a sound that resonates with them. Words from the journal will come at least twice a month.
Jebi Labembika is a multidisciplinary artist who works across filmmaking, photography and performance. His practice uses these mediums as an aid in documenting experiences of the African body. His work has been shown in Tate Britain and the ICA, and has photographed imagery for brands such as Burberry, Off White and Raf Simons.
Jebi’s images have a distinct viewpoint and say a lot without needing to over-explain. There’s a silence that’s understood, sometimes discomforting yet grounding at the same time.
While sitting with his images I’m reminded of this quote by Harmony Holiday in her piece The Black Catatonic Scream, a meditation on Black silence and its uses in communicating beyond what is verbally articulated : “I’m trying to locate, in Black silence, a balance between the forced and the deliberate, between I said what I said and never mind (redacted), between danger and comfort.”
Here’s what he shared with us this week.
— Alice
Sights —
Sounds —
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