In Past Pupils & Smiles

Author: Solange Knowles
Publisher: Anteism/Saint Heron
Year: 2022
Pages: 188
ISBN: 978-1926968629

In Past Pupils and Smiles is the print rendering of Solange’s self-composed and directed final performance at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale de Venezia, in the Teatro alle Tese 2, Arsenale. The happenings of November 24th 2019 are encapsulated within this hardcover highlighting the celebratory bodily movement of interpreters.

This piece magnifies themes of protection, transformation and spiritual transcendence amid Venice’s flood depredations. Its photographic documentation transports readers through a deep dive in the birth of an idea coinciding with the unexpected obstacles of natural devastation.

Solange pursues an engagement with Black speculative thought by virtue of world-making. In Past Pupils & Smiles meditates on the interrelations between aesthetics of the Self, the body and constructions of spatiality. We construct ourselves in relation to the spaces we imagine. It is by creating immersive landscapes that the artist expounds on Black womanhood. By reaching traditions of postmodern dance, minimalism, architecture and queer/feminist narratives; an interconnection with unrestrained presence and expression is conceived.