THE BLACKS began the summer that Eric Garner was suffocated to death by officers of the NYPD. Vanessa German began to take serious account of her Black colleagues, friends, and peers who were reporting numbness, grief, despair, malaise, and public hyper-anxiety resulting from the constant threat of and replaying of videos of Black Death. In loving, tender response to the physical and psychological terror being afflicted upon the bodies, spirits, and imaginations Black People on this land, German began Inviting friends to her home, creating intentionally and strategically loving and peaceful environments in which to transform them into the superhero powerful version of themselves. Photographing the series is an act of misery resistance, and acts as a work of performance art that in it it’s glamour and spectacle of color, style, and visual pomp, disrupts the momentum of misery and act as an interactive salve to the broken places.

Vanessa German is a visual and performance artist based in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Homewood. Homewood is the community that is the driving force behind German’s powerful performance work, and whose cast-off relics form the language of her copiously embellished sculptures. As a citizen artist, German explores the power of art and love as a transformative force in the dynamic cultural ecosystem of communities and neighborhoods. She is the founder of Love Front Porch and the ARThouse, a community arts initiative for the children of Homewood. Her work is in private and public collections and German’s fine art work has been exhibited widely. Vanessa German is represented by Pavel Zoubok Gallery in New York.

The project was supported by the Small Grants Program of the US Embassy in Prague, the city hall of Prague 6, Charles University in Prague and SMIRA – PRINT ENTERPRISES. Partners of the project are Aurosa beer and Galerie pod schody.