Blackland Prairies
2025
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Visual Arts Center
University of Texas Austin
Austin, TX
Exhibition: Fri. Jan. 24 - Sat. March 8, 2025
Blackland Prairies borrows its title from the name given to the fertile ecoregion that stretches from the northeastern edge of Texas to the center of the state, encompassing historically Black and Brown regions of the city of Austin. The ecological qualities of this area—its access to fresh water from the Colorado River and rich clay soil—served as a site for generations of Black Texans to build homes, establish churches and schools, and maintain communities. Since the formation of Austin’s freedom communities in the late 1860s, the efforts of segregationist city planners, urban developers, and profit-motivated investors have made this landscape unrecognizable to the Black communities who called this area home for over 150 years. Blackland Prairies examines this historical transformation through the radical lens of Black presence. By juxtaposing archival materials sourced from local collections with works by Texas-born and based artists, the exhibition demonstrates how Black histories, memories, and everyday life are permanently inscribed in the city.
Blackland Prairies assembles a presentation of archival documents and photographs of Austin’s historically Black communities created by city residents, government officials, and local news media from the 19th century to the present day. These materials are surrounded by visual art that references personal and community histories in Austin and throughout Texas, as well as artworks that reflect on the relationships between Black communities and space on a more expansive scale. Together, the archives and artworks evoke the many tangible and intangible layers of Austin’s histories, complicating reductive narratives about who and what Austin is. Artists Adrian Aguilera, Riley Holloway, Aryel René Jackson, and Ann Johnson mine personal and public archives to transform images into monuments that celebrate the joy, intimacy, and hopes of Black communities. Artists Betelhem Makonnen, Tammie Rubin, Victor Torres, and Daniel Llanes use natural materials to show how the passage of time leaves a lasting mark on the environment and creates a visual record of obscured and overlooked histories. Rather than use pre-existing archival materials, artists Adraint Bereal, Nathaniel Donnett, and Cindy Elizabeth collect and document stories to emphasize how Black archives are enacted in everyday life—among friends, in conversation at a barbershop, and at family gatherings in the park.
While Austin’s rapid transformation continues to minimize Black presence and history, the artists and archival materials of Blackland Prairies illuminate emerging, enduring, and evolving forms of Black life in the city.
Principle support for Blackland Prairies is provided by the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies and the Black Diaspora Archive at The University of Texas at Austin.
Curation: Assistant Curator Melissa Fandos and 2024–25 Curatorial Fellow Maysa Martins.
Featuring work by:
Adrian Aguilera, Adraint Bereal, Nathaniel Donnett, Cindy Elizabeth, Riley Holloway, Aryel René Jackson, Ann Johnson, Daniel Llanes, Betelhem Makonnen, Tammie Rubin, Victor Torres.
Works presented:
in(to)visible intersections, 2016 - 2024
installation with single channel video w/sound and image projection, 05:00 mins
untitled (our misunderstanding of time, of ourselves), 2020
Rocks, watches, simulacrum grass, pedestal, vitrine
untitled (allographic translation of undocumented history, Enchanted Rock, 30.507159° N 98.816730° W, alt. 1750 ft. and 30.5066299° N 98.817805° W, alt. 1800 ft.), 2017
w/ Adrian Aguilera
Enchanted Rock interviewed with graphite on acetate, 40 in x 80 in. each (diptych)
Image credit: All images courtesy of the Visual Arts Center. Photos by Alex Boeschenstein.
untitled (in the beginning was thephoton)/2024
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untitled (in the beginning was the photon)
2024
Betelhem Makonnen w/ Adrian Aguilera
Neon tubing
Texas State University’s Live Oak Hall
2024
Betelhem Makonnen w/ Adrian Aguilera
Neon tubing
Texas State University’s Live Oak Hall
Austin, Texas-based artist duo Betelhem Makonnen and Adrian Aguilera describe their neon artwork, untitled (in the beginning was the photon), as highlighting “the inherent link between light waves (composed of photons) and communication, spotlighting communication’s power to go beyond imparting information to profoundly shaping our perception of the world and ourselves in it.” The artwork is installed on the exterior of Texas State University’s Live Oak Hall, the film and television building. The use of neon script references a long line of minimalist and light artists who have also used this commercial medium in artistic expression.
The work expands on the seminal quote from media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, "the medium is the message." "Whether through print, radio, television or other forms, media plays a crucial role in shaping culture and society."
According to Makonnen and Aguilera,
“In our ever-increasing era of information overload, it is more critical than ever to remember that we have the power to shape media even as it shapes us.”
This work was made in collaboration with fabricators at Neon Jungle, Lucid Art LLC and traditional neon benders at Ricochet Neon.
The work expands on the seminal quote from media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, "the medium is the message." "Whether through print, radio, television or other forms, media plays a crucial role in shaping culture and society."
According to Makonnen and Aguilera,
“In our ever-increasing era of information overload, it is more critical than ever to remember that we have the power to shape media even as it shapes us.”
This work was made in collaboration with fabricators at Neon Jungle, Lucid Art LLC and traditional neon benders at Ricochet Neon.