When Negress Entered the Smithsonian

In 2023, I signed the acquisition paperwork for Negress to enter the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

It's one of those moments that is difficult to fully comprehend while it's happening. At the time there were contracts to read, logistics to organise and the practicalities that accompany any acquisition. Looking back now, there's more space to reflect on what it represents.

Negress has always occupied an unusual place within my practice. Although it takes the form of a chaise lounge, I have never thought of it simply as a piece of furniture. It asks us to confront the hidden narratives embedded within the domestic objects we live with and the histories they quietly carry. The work invites the viewer to sit, while simultaneously questioning what it means to rest upon a body that has been abstracted, fragmented and placed in service. That tension is the work.

To know that these questions now form part of the Smithsonian's permanent collection is deeply meaningful. Museums shape the stories we choose to preserve and the conversations that continue long after individual exhibitions have closed. The acquisition allows Negress to exist within a broader dialogue about Black history, identity and representation, while remaining true to the questions that first led me to make the piece.

Looking back, I don't think of this moment simply as an institutional milestone. I think of it as confirmation that the conversations we begin through making have lives far beyond the studio.
The work has left the studio, but the questions it asks continue to travel.

Negress