@m.j.h.a.r.p.e.r

HARPERSLETTERS

artist

Represented by Concrete Rep [email protected]

4,900 Posts10,400 Followers2,740 Following

Arias For A New World Mallory Mazzy Monet Aquemini Blake Prince Klein Drewchin Campbell Cunningham Pilati Simone NASA Cai Guo-Qiang David Darling & The Wulu Bunun Yorke Jainz Lambert Grande Morehouse Glee Club Hildegard Von Bingen The Backyardigans Sunday Service Marsha Cottrell “Untitled 2010” laser toner on mylar, 8.5 x 11" Marsha Cottrell “Untitled 2013” Laser toner on paper, 13.5 x 10.75 Marsha Cottrell Spectral Sun (11) 2014” Laser toner on paper, 8.5 x 11" Sky Ladder Huiyu Island Harbour, Quanzhou, Fujian, June 15, 2015 at 4:49 am Marsha Cottrell Untitled 2010 Laser toner on mylar, 8.5 x 11 Marsha Cottrell Nature of Math.2 2005, laser toner on mylar, 12 x 18.5" Marsha Cottrell Untitled 2013, laser toner on handmade paper, 33-1/2 x 48-1/2"

HARPERSLETTERS @m.j.h.a.r.p.e.r

So very delighted and honoured to share that I had the lovely opportunity to spend some time with @hansbussert and @christian_werner for @exlibris.berlin It was a beautiful summers day and in the best of company. Thank you to @annewaak for your care and thoughtful questions, always a joy to be able to release and speak on what’s been flowing and flying through my mind. To read the interview, sign up at: www.exlibris.berlin Photographed by: @christian_werner Interview by: @annewaak @hansbussert @neverenver @concretereplimited

HARPERSLETTERS @m.j.h.a.r.p.e.r

So pleased to share this very exciting piece with @id_germany @i_d Humbled to have had the chance to speak with Julika Reese and to have portraits by @raetilly thank you! I go a little in depth about my process, articulating how, in a bizzare way, social media turned into a sort of engine or practice for me to help with world building, language building…I also speak on the beautiful collaborators who, I thank my lucky stars every day, for having the energies that I do, around me. Arias represents a completely new chapter in my artistic and personal life, somehow…it has been the most beautiful labour of love, built over the past 7 years and huge love letter to all who have and are, near and dear to me. I look forward to the journey ahead and sharing all that’s to come…Thank you to the @blnensemble for the incredible opportunity and to everyone who was able to make it to the performances and for the insane outpouring of love I felt from near and afar. I’ll never forget this feeling…Thank you all very much for continuing to support me and my work in the ways that you do. Arias For A New World Design: @stefanopilati @randomidentities Composition and music: @anteklazar @thomasiom Hair and Make-up: @kenny._campbell Light Design: @dielamb Link in bio! For those unable to translate, worry not, and English version on I.D will be with us soon! @concretereplimited

HARPERSLETTERS @m.j.h.a.r.p.e.r

I’ve been thinking a lot lately, about transparency and what it would mean for our leaders, care givers, systems and institutions to engage in more practices of transparency. I’m reminded of a heart breakingly beautiful section in Ta-Nehisi Coats “The Water Dancer” where a mother, with the aide of the Underground Railroad in the back waters of the American south, flees her slave masters, and must explain to the ones she has to leave behind, why it has to be so… ‘I am so sorry, baby, but I gotta go.’ And I, being young and loving my momma, I said, ‘Momma, why can’t we go with you?’ And my momma she said...she said, ‘ ’Cause I can only carry so many, and them only so far.’ What would it, what could it mean if those leading the way forward where allowed the space to be vulnerable. To be able to admit when an answer wasn’t clear, or an intention had gone astray, or quite simply, to be able to say “I am sorry”. As naive as it may feel, the simplicity in accountability in addressing when something hasn’t worked, when there has been a misunderstanding, has a power all of its own. We have seen throughout history the power of the communal body and what happens when those forging the path forward, are able to lean on those who look to them, for guidance. I have also been thinking a lot about what it means to cut ties from systems, institutions, communities, relationships or structures, that carry within them, abusive mechanics in order to work, in order to produce. Here we have a point of friction. The grace in allowing room for error and the trust in allowing both parties to carry forward in good merit what they have both learned, rubbing up against the honesty in removing oneself from a connection that has proved itself unable to meet the requirements for a healthy connection. I come to think of the word “pioneer” and what it truly means. Not the heroic westernized idea of being a pioneer, but the messy, painful, beautiful and necessary process of seeking and cultivating that which has not made itself clear to you. Of finding a truth and an energy that aligns with your spirit. Of finding harmony. What does a bridge through the middle passage look like?

HARPERSLETTERS @m.j.h.a.r.p.e.r

By way of Moon light…A million kisses to your skin.

HARPERSLETTERS @m.j.h.a.r.p.e.r