Description:

In their 2019 film, INFINITY minus infinity, the celebrated multi-disciplinary artist collective the Otolith Group contests the toxic sociopolitical histories that inform Black life in contemporary England. The film interrogates the “hostile environment policy” enacted by Theresa May’s Conservative government in 2012, which was framed as an effort to combat “illegal immigration” in the UK. But the policy, which harshly denied access to services and employment for undocumented migrants, reflected a broader, suffocating atmosphere of anti-blackness in Britain—one tied to centuries-long histories of discrimination, extraction, and environmental devastation. Collaborating with a range of poets, performers, and scholars, core group members Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun craft what Artforum critic Ed Halter described as “a constantly moving flux of bodies, histories, and theories.” An expressive and incisive visual essay, INFINITY minus infinity combines deftly-layered strata of imagery and sound to survey the pasts and presents of racial capitalism and the Anthropocene—while gesturing toward alternative futures informed by Black radical feminist traditions.

Following the screening, Otolith Group members Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun will appear to discuss the film with Antawan Byrd (College Fellow, Department of Art History, Northwestern University).

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This program is sponsored by the Northwestern Buffett Global Working Group Climate Crisis + Media Arts and presented in partnership with the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago.

As part of their week-long Chicago visit, The Otolith Group will appear for a public screening of their film NUCLEUS OF THE GREAT UNION at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 3. More information >>