Swimming Ugly is an open, yet rhetorical question about the need for money, and the value of life. Here, a dollar taped in place is nearly connected, by electrical current, to the continuous Atlantic Ocean current, which regulates and sustains life on Earth. These two function in opposition, canceling out each wave in their eventual meeting. As the rising tides overtake a stagnant system, the word “stretch” lists loose needs and concepts overall.

Screenprinted in black enamel ink with pen blue detail, Swimming Ugly is a single screen collage of exposed objects for sound engineering, along with tape, oilstick, and grease pencil. Straight-cut Warm White Stonehenge paper rebutes the depth of inorganic substance this industrial specific ink is commonly used for.

Working in a range of disciplines, spanning sound, installation, sculpture, painting, video, and film, Char Jeré has an artistic vision rooted in a philosophy they have coined Afro-fractalism, a term that builds on the foundations of Afrofuturism. Within this framework, time is conceived as nonlinear and multidimensional, a conduit that connects the past, present, and future through intergenerational communication with ancestors. Jeré’s work investigates fractures and connections within a Black diasporic history along with the possibilities for reclaiming and reshaping narratives around race and technology. Their collages, which synthesize a range of materials, incorporate incantations for time collapse and the summoning of spaceships as well as references to ancient cultural histories.

CharJeré.com