Softer Landings

Nafis M. White is an interdisciplinary, multihyphenate artist whose recent body of works are created from objects commonly found in beauty supply stores, industrial sites and the seemingly limitless horizons of our global and political landscapes. Through weaving, hairdressing, sculpture and installation, White centers the uncanny audacity of self-affirmation and love by means of repetition as a form of change. White is inspired by raw materials and their transformative properties and abilities to tell dynamic stories when in congress. White’s formal training is in sculpture, printmaking and digital media. She uses concept as anchor and medium as message in her work moving within conceptual and durational realms. Community engagement, beauty and the political root deep in White’s work.

White draws inspiration from the rich diaspora of experiences and traditions of Black beauty and self-care built upon centuries-old histories of embodied knowledge that honors, celebrates and values the innovation, technology and imagination carried through and passed on by the fingertips of Black people. Through play and continuous exploration, White employs her research on the intricate customs of Victorian hair weaving and mourning traditions and appropriates them using Black hair, beauty products and hairstyling techniques where they were never imagined to take up space and esteem. She exaggerates pattern and scale with keen emphasis beholden on colors and textures to draw viewers into her creative process, while simultaneously honoring the resilience and power of a people whose very existence and aesthetics have been the subject of ridicule, persecution and systemic erasure since their harrowing and iniquitous arrival upon these shores.

White’s work is in numerous private and institutional collections including the RISD Museum, RISD Fleet Library Special Collections, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Queer Archive Work & Binch Press and has been exhibited at The de Young Museum, The RISD Museum, National Queer Arts Festival San Francisco, The List Gallery at Brown University, New Museum, Goldsmiths University, Autograph ABP and OXO Tower in London among many others.

White holds an MFA and BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.

“Softer Landings” came together as a balm in the midst of tumult and unpredictable variables both locally and globally, bursting forth like a sunny day after a week of rain, a familiar and soothing voice arising from a boisterous and unfamiliar crowd. I heavily considered the social, political and Earthen landscapes as this exhibition grew in concept and depth. I found myself going back again and again to the writings of Ross Gay for inspiration and grounding as he is also someone who frequently finds beauty in the space of chaos, who excavates warmth from what many might consider the mundane and unexceptional. He would say perhaps that a soft landing is such a powerful place to be, to be held, to be cared for, to know safety. I began to consider what a soft landing would look like for me and what it could be defined as for others. I saw different frequencies of yellows and thought of the warmth of the sun, and an ease-filled breeze, the brightness and promise of the crocus and daffodils breaking through the ice and snow of winter. I heard laughter and birdsong and thought about moments in my life that have given me unspeakable joy in the face of adversity and the melancholic.

Joy is yellow to me; it is kinetic and positive and dancing. Yellows that shine like jewels breaking through the casts of boredom and routine. Yellows that offer a baptism of feeling, nurturing and possibility. I am also reminded of the words of poet Toi Derricotte who states boldly that “joy is an act of resistance.” Yellow is the signifier of that which cannot be contained just as one cannot contain the sun. In recent times, I have been reminded to slow down and let the sun shine on my face, to remember that sorrow and hurt doesn’t last forever, that disasters can be mended and that I and we are all here for a great purpose and to ever lean into those gifts and callings. Softness looks good on us, and in this exhibition I wanted to create an offering to Staff, Volunteers, Visitors and Community, a space with which to dream out loud, a meter that allows for a soulful two-step, a place to exhale and let the rays of possibility wash over our faces and bodies.

Taking a quote from Ross Gay’s book titled Inciting Joy, he says, “My hunch is that joy is an ember for our precursor to wild and unpredictable and transgressive and unboundaried solidarity. And that that solidarity might incite further joy. … My hunch is that joy, emerging from our common sorrow … might draw us together.”

I hope that “Softer Landings” draws us together, asks us to lean in, to listen, to play, to sway and to imagine our highest selves and Divine gifts and then move forward with relentless and radiant intention.