Akea Brionne

Issue 172

Janus (2023)
Let the Land & Light Carry You (2020)

“This work is one of the first steps I took to solidify my existence in landscapes that are otherwise void (at least on the surface) of bodies that look, think, and maneuver like mine. I've often been in spaces existing as THE "other". It can truly be exhausting to always have to be "on." When I started to accept that being in a state of social and cultural isolation wasn't going to change, I started to connect to my environment in a way that brought me a peace I'd never thought I had a right to feel. Then one day, I felt at home.”

Akea Brionne works across an extensive range of media, from fabric to AI, to address relationships between body, place, and landscape. In her series Let the Land & Light Carry You, photographs made in Maryland and New Mexico, Brionne photographs spaces where suburbs give way to farmland, exploring and reflecting on her position as an Afro-Creole woman in these spaces. Her photographs seek to evoke a specific sense of the sublime through their tonality. Grounded #1, an abstract textile patchwork suggestive of a bird’s eye view of these topographies, challenges the viewer to ask how they see the land through which they move.

Akea Brionne currently lives between Detroit, MI and Kansas City, MO.
akeabrionne.com | @akeabrionne