Children of Sirius
Curated by Malachi Lily
Vox Populi’s 2019 Black Box Curatorial Fellow
Advised by Danny Orendorff
July 5 – August 4, 2019

Note: Getting to know and work with Malachi Lily during their Fellowship at Vox Populi was without question one of the most rewarding experiences of my time with the organization. The care, creativity, skill, and thoughtfulness Lily displayed towards their concept and their collaborators was truly inspiring. Follow their work at: malachilily.com

Exhibition Statement
Organized by 2019 Black Box Curatorial Fellow Malachi Lily, Children of Sirius is a group exhibition of sculptures, installations, photography and ephemera produced with or by the seven multi-disciplinary artists featured in Lily’s Children of Sirius performance events, held at Vox Populi in early June 2019: Marcelline Mandeng, Sabrina Pantal, Vitche-Boul Ra, Oro Ori, Alex Farr, Jordan Deal, and Chlöe Marie.

Exploring concepts of black divinity, the unconscious, mythology and survival, Children of Sirius is an extension of Lily’s ongoing work with queer, trans and gender non-conforming black artists that create spaces for self-love and collective consciousness.

Children of Sirius features collaborative portraits of all seven artists, photographed by Nuna Ulises, for which Lily styled each artist in the spirit of their own chosen deity. Additionally, Children of Sirius includes wearable found-object sculptures by Jordan Deal, masks and poetry by Oro Ori, costume-work by Marcelline Mandeng, sculpture by Alex Farr, and a site-specific installation by Vitche-Boul Ra, Chlöe Marie, and Sabrina Pantal.

ABOUT THE CURATOR
Malachi Lily (they/them)
2019 Black Box Curatorial Fellow Malachi Lily is a shapeshifting, non-binary, black poet, artist, curator, and moth. They connect to the collective unconscious via energy work, active imagination, mysticism, myth, magick, folklore, and fairy tales. This channeling often takes the form of poetry and illustration, but at Vox Populi that work becomes curation as they connect to another artist’s energy and work beyond simply aesthetics. Malachi connects artists who are unconsciously vibrating together and uses their organizational skills to give them all a space to sing. Malachi’s curation forms a tangible permeation of a culture of Oneness – living in the reality that we all are manifestations of the same source energy and we all create our realities together. It is Malachi’s purpose to create space to uplift fellow black artists as gods, to bring balance and truth to their experiences. Malachi is a liminal being of race, gender, artistic practice, and existence reclaiming the spiritual body of black and brown people who experience generational trauma and colonization. Their work offers methods to break these individual barriers and reveals the symbols, archetypes, emotions, and lessons that exist in everyone as a collective consciousness, to heal, awake, and empower.
More information: malachilily.com