Afrofuturist Film of Black Rhapsody in Zero Gravity

I'm excited to introduce you to North Star, my most ambitious undertaking yet! North Star interrupts and reimagines the narrative of the Black body in Western art history and contemporary art. By freeing the Black body of gravity it hopes to separate the body from weight of terrestrial oppression.

Picture this: “Black bodies floating joyfully in zero gravity environments, their figures blooming into one another through prismatic refraction.”

Using gravity as a symbol for oppression, artist Kambui Olujimi will send ten participants on parabolic flights that will free fall from a high altitude, resulting in a moment of zero gravity. During this sliver of time, the participants will be photographed to capture their reactions and expressions of feeling weightless — to capture what if feels like to be without oppression. The goal for his film is to reconstruct the heavy narrative of Black bodies by showing a moment of serenity and freedom in hopes of introducing a new perspective.

“The Black body is too often saddled as a station of trauma and violence, making Black Rhapsody an anomaly. North Star interrupts this narrative by recontextualizing the site of Blackness and Black bodies as a strategy for resistance against the gravity of oppression.” -Kambui Olujimi

Olujimi just set up a Kickstarter for the necessary resources needed to create his film titled North Star. His film was chosen to develop at Kehinde Wiley’s Black Rock Senegal residency.

Olujimi hopes to raise $25,000 in order to turn his vision into a reality and to cover the costs of the flights. There will be pledge rewards that include dinner with the artist, a copy of the completed North Star video, film credits, signed concept drawings, and much more.

“What does the Black body, devoid of the gravity of oppression, look like? What is the Black body in zero gravity?” — artist Kambui Olujimi on North Star.

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Kambui Olujimi, sketch for North Star. Image courtesy of the artist.