"Today, I’m speaking with Laura Arminda Kingsley, a Dominican visual artist who was born in the United States and is now living and working in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland. Laura describes her work as an exploration of what it means to be human beyond race, gender norms, sexuality, and other identity constructs. Through her art, she invites us to reflect on both the vast diversity of humanity and, perhaps more importantly, on what connects us—notjust to each other, but to all living beings on this planet and beyond.
Her perspective also extends beyond our present moment, drawing from deep time and engaging with geology and the natural sciences, as well as the existentialist concept of Dasein. She takes a critical approach to disciplines likeevolutionary theory, questioning the financial and ideological forces that have shaped these fields since the 18th century.
In this interview, we will take a closer look at her latest performance, Desblanqueamiento at the San Trovaso River Presented as part of the the closing events of the Official Collateral Exhibition of the 2024 Venice Biennale curated by Rosa Sancarlo. In her performance, Laura deeply engaged with Venice and it’s past. She delved into the rich history of the African Diaspora in Venice since the Renaissance, honoring the contributions of Afro-diasporic immigrants. Through her embodied performance Desblanqueamiento, she symbolically aims to uncover the whitewashing of Italian history, where the presence of Afro-diasporic people since the 1500s has been systematically erased.
The embodied performance is a departure from Laura’s previous work, although it also touches on many of the themes that are present in her art, like the element of water,her critique of social hierarchies and the consequences of colonialism in our present-day realities.
Her performance, Desblanqueamientoat the San Trovaso River, can be seen as a decolonial act exploring themes of shared humanity while challenging the concept of perpetual foreignness. As such, Laura, through her work positionsherself and also questions the 2024 Venice Biennale theme, Foreigners Everywhere.
For the interview, I visited Laura in her home and studio. It was wonderful to see more of her work up close and so lovely for her to welcome me into her space. We began the interview by exploring why she choose the name Desblanquamiento at the San Trovaso River for the performance in Venice and what it meant in a historical and colonial context is.
Artists, references, and other things mentioned in our talk:
Desblanqueamiento at the San Trovaso River, 2024
Laura’scurrent exhibtion in Sto Domingo in CCESD
Kate Lowe : Visible Lives: Black Gondoliers and Other Black Africans in Renaissance Venice
Claire Fontaine, Foreigner Everywhere, 2006
Gentile Bellini, Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of San Lorenzo, 1500
Fred KuwornuFilm: We were Here
Calabash : Higuero
Taíno : Arawak
Yemayá Orisha of Shallow Waters
Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic
James Baldwin,Isabel Allende, H.P Lovecraft, Alejo Carpentier, Mario Vargas Llosa, E.R. Braithwaite, Octavia Butler
Producer : Isabelle Reymond