BlackMass Publishing:
BlackMass on Canal
BlackMass on Canal is a research project.
While in residence at Canal Projects, BlackMass Publishing will be hosting a series of happenings and public programs. The core focus of their residency-as-research project will be to take a look at the intersections between architecture, archival practices, film, poetic expression, through publishing as a practice with the aim of fostering public engagement; exploring how these mediums inform and interact with each other in contemporary social culture, spatially and visually. The role of publishing as a platform for promoting discourse will be explored, specifically thinking about how print and digital media contribute to the preservation and reinterpretation of traditions and how these traditions help shape collective memory. In addition the research will consider the physical and conceptual spaces where poetry and film intersect with architecture in engineered design, temporary installation, performance, etc. and how these spaces contribute to a broader dialogue on the role of culture in society. By focusing on these cross-disciplinary interactions, they will aim to discover ways of experiencing and understanding art in both public and private spheres, through gathering.
While onsite, BlackMass Publishing will be curating a public library that will continue expand throughout the residency. Seed collection provided by Kurt Thometz/Jumel Terrace Books.
BlackMass Publishing is an independent publisher founded in 2019. At once a structure of coherent units and a collection of disjointed parts, BlackMass invokes an aggregate of Blackness, of matter in resistance. Combining archival photographs and found print material with poetry and jazz music, BlackMass grapples with the blurred lines and idiosyncrasies which make up the collective improvisation of African diasporic culture.
