Pamela Sneed reception for Speaking Tongue at Dashwood Projects

Dashwood Projects is proud to announce our next show with the multi-disciplinary artist, Pamela Sneed. Speaking Tongue, a name taken from a poem by the artist, presents a series of twenty paintings in watercolor and ink on paper inspired by her recent trip to Kenya.

Pamela Sneed is a New York based poet, performer and visual artist. Her award winning 2020 book Funeral Diva (City Lights Books) received rave reviews and cemented her position as a major voice in poetry, it deals with her experiences during the AIDS Crisis while making correlations to COVID-19, and the ongoing layered impacts of racism, homophobia, and political brutality.

This, her third show of paintings and first collaboration with Dashwood Projects will open on November 15th and runs through December 21, 2024. There will also be a book of the same name due out in early December to accompany the show.

Artist’s Statement:

“Speaking Tongue, the show’s title is named after giraffes and their long black tongues and how they communicate but also is a reference to my own background as a poet, my experience as the granddaughter of a Baptist preacher and the idea of speaking in tongues when one is possessed by the spirit. I was moved by the animal spirits around me on the Mara and at Lake Nakuru. And as a tall person myself I was captivated by the massive height of giraffes, and their elegant gait. It’s imperative to mention that Nairobi, Kenya, this summer has been embroiled in protests, a younger population protesting against higher taxes and fees and government corruption. I hope to have captured my spellbinding journey in these images.

Driven by curiosity, art, poetry, inquiry and adventure I’ve traveled to places in West Africa, spent some time in Ghana and Benin and South Africa. These journeys have been life altering, have been educational and informed my identity as an African American Queer poet, visual artist, performer and also as someone who is part of a diaspora. I was curious about East Africa and decided to spend three weeks in Nairobi, Kenya and while there also treated myself to a safari at Maasai Mara, Kenya. My experience with animal life had really been limited to zoos and house pets so the experience of seeing wild animals in their natural habitat was educational, majestic, illuminating, inspiring and moving. I was overcome by their beauty, movement, dignity, and intelligence. As a way of documenting my experience and paying homage to these animals I painted them in watercolor and ink hoping to capture their essence.” PS

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