Kapwani

Kiwanga's

'BLEED'

coming

soon

to

Harlem

Opening next month, 'BLEED' is a major new site-specific commission at Studio Museum in Harlem by Kapwani Kiwanga. Drawing on quilting traditions and the coded language of the Underground Railroad, Kiwanga reimagines the “flying geese” motif – believed to guide people north – through sweeping fields of black, indigo and crimson.

Created using natural dyes, the work carries layered histories: Atlantic salt water oxidises pigment into dappled black; indigo recalls agricultural knowledge carried from West Africa under slavery; and deep red pokeberry references both toxicity and resistance, invoking acts of self-determination embedded in diasporic memory.

Rendered in fugitive dyes that shift over time, 'BLEED' becomes a living register of ancestry, material intelligence and the passage of time.

Organised by Yelena Keller.