Da Cipher: responding to the call
Curated by FAITH ∞
Featuring: Geoffrey Edwards, Kalil “kllz” Hunter, Christina Marsh, and Jessica Valoris
March 23 - April 21, 2024 at the DC Arts Center
Washington, D.C.
Featured Image: Geoffrey Edwards, 2nd Born; Halie, Keeper of the Moringa Groves, Acrylic, ink, fabric, brass, acetate, 16” diameter, 2020. Flyer Design by FAITH McCorkle.
Da Cipher: responding to the call connects the social freestyling space of the hip-hop cypher to the exploration of ancestral roots, investigating the Black experience through call-and-response rituals. Curated by Baltimore-based artist and cultural producer FAITH (Eleisha Faith McCorkle), Da Cipher investigates the phonetics of the word “cypher,” inviting viewers to decipher hidden narratives within Black histories. The featured multidisciplinary artists create a thought-provoking space that elevates the complex tapestry of Black collective consciousness.
Opening Celebration & Cypher footage. Video by Niajea Randolph
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Da Cipher: responding to the call serves as an anthology manifested by stories encoded within the Black experience, bringing together intentionally selected works that cross paths through ritual and repetition. Conceived as an anthology, Da Cipher is not merely a collection of artworks but of passages, stories, and personal narratives. Investigating the phonetics of the word cypher and the etymology of decipher, moments of return are echoed, creating a cycle of uncovering what is hidden in our histories. Connections between the call-and-response of rap cyphers and the urge to explore complex genealogies create space for the restorative nature of these practices to breathe as one.
Call-and-response is a medium used to magnify Black expression, with a participant or caller raising a thought or beat, prompting the next in line, or the audience, to respond. With its roots deep in gospel, blues, and jazz, the hip-hop cypher transforms into a vessel that channels and exchanges energy, with participants forming a circle as they freestyle one by one. The call within this interaction is the same spiritual force that pulls the artists in this space to travel into themselves, uncovering roots and stories with the intention of self-discovery and bringing restoration to the Black community. The power of responding to the call lies in this means of repairing oneself through freestyling, improvising, creating—figuring it out, and deciphering along the way.
Curated by Baltimore-based artist and cultural producer FAITH McCorkle, this space brings together multidisciplinary artists who speak to the ongoing journey of revealing the concealed, meeting inside Black experiences, histories, and the loops of rhythms improvised. This exhibition challenges viewers to decipher for themselves the hidden codes and stories told, creating a space that acknowledges some experiences are beyond the reach of projection while elevating the phenomena of Black collective consciousness.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Geoffrey Edwards
Geoffrey Edwards is a mixed media artist, ceramicist, and herbalist. Geoffrey studied and earned a B.S. in Psychology and Ceramics at Jackson State University and earned his M.S. in Art Therapy at Mount Mary College. He has worked over the past 2 decades as an art therapist and resident teaching artist in numerous public schools, hospitals, and detention centers in the Washington DC Metro area, Detroit, MI, and in his hometown of Milwaukee, WI. He is the owner of Grain & Pestle, an urban farm and pottery studio in Highland Park, Michigan.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Kalil “kllz” Hunter
Kalil “kllz” Hunter is a visual artist and music producer, originally hailing from PG County, MD but currently residing in Washington DC. Kalil considers himself an interdisciplinary artist, but since around 2016 he’s found a particular love for graphic design and has used it as his primary medium in recent years. His designs feature a heavy emphasis on analog textures and making the digital feel as physical as possible, often opting for a heavy collage-style look in his work.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Christina Marsh
Christina Marsh is an innovative leader who connects communities through artistic expression, collaboration, and restorative practices. Her work is focused on strategic planning, program implementation, and curriculum building while advocating and coaching youth, adults, and families who have experienced trauma and/or significant loss. She is a nationally recognized artist who has been in arts administration and education for over two decades. As a community artist, she has worked in several states with diverse communities, utilizing art as a method of connecting and creating visual narratives.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Jessica Valoris
Jessica Valoris is an interdisciplinary artist and community facilitator based in Washington, DC. She weaves together mixed media painting, installation, ritual performance, and social practice to create sacred spaces. Her art activates ancestral wisdom, personal reflection, and community study.
Inspired by the earth-based traditions of her Black American and Jewish ancestry, Jessica engages metaphysics, spirituality, and Afrofuturism in her work. Her art is both balm and blueprint: mapping out pathways for the Black liberatory imagination and reviving recipes for collective care. Jessica collaborates with organizers and cultural workers to facilitate community rituals of remembrance and conversations about reparations, abolition, earth stewardship, and more.
ARTIST TALK
It all starts with a beat,
The heartbeat’s rhythm and the beat of a song are synonymous,
Improvisation is our native tongue,
Our body and flesh are vessels,
Carrying the wisdom of the ascended.
It’s here, and it has always been here within,
Where circles draw themselves in secret,
Where lines are birthed, wandering just to return,
Where we earn then pass the torch,
Where the end is the beginning,
Where we respond to the call the ones before have given us.
-FAITH
I do nothing without intention.
At every instance, I seek to synthesize the forms of creation and concepts I’m fascinated by. For my first curatorial project, I sought to create a space that embodied this, encompassing words, society, music production, spirituality, ritual, and Black expression. Recently, I have been going down the rabbit hole of phonetics, the study of speech sounds and their production, intrigued by the complexities hidden in everyday speech.
In Da Cipher: responding to the call, an exhibition that has been a labor of love for me, we embark on a profound journey of deciphering through the lens of call-and-response rituals. This exhibition is not just a collection of artworks; it is an anthology, a living narrative that intertwines the rhythmic traditions of call-and-response with the exploration of ancestral roots. I define this space as an anthology because of its multiple meanings. I want this space to be seen, heard, and felt as an assemblage of passages, a gathering of flowers, and a selection of works of art.
Each piece displayed is a thread woven into a larger narrative, inviting you to actively engage with the work and attempt to unravel the concealed meanings. Within my own narrative, I have crossed paths with the selected artists at pivotal chapters in my story. They were there in times of challenge, transformation, and release. They showed me the spirit of community and continue to inspire me. From artworks that portray personal ancestries; to the codes of Black fugitive practice; to immersive soundscapes that echo the spirit of improvisation, the artists of Da Cipher: responding to the call collectively create an experience that transports viewers into the middle of the circle. I challenged each of them to make a key for their work in place of an explanation in their artist statements, providing a space to share as much or as little as they wish and an opportunity for viewers to try to decipher these Black stories themselves.
At its core, Da Cipher: responding to the call is more than an exhibition; it is a call for collective reflection. As we navigate this immersive space, consider the broader significance of the themes present: The call-and-response tradition, deeply rooted in Black Indigenous histories, reflects the enduring strength of Black communities worldwide and our means to create something out of nothing. This exhibition invites viewers to consider their ability to access Black histories without direct experience and by (attempting to) decode these narratives, not only engage with Black stories but confront the challenges the Black community has faced and continues to face when going within. The work we do is not easy; researching our genealogies and ancestries is complicated. It is heavy work rooted in generations of trauma and hidden or lost histories. Expressing ourselves creatively is not always seen or elevated as something powerful.
Nevertheless, we respond to the call. This space is meant to be restorative and liberatory for the Black community. It is meant to make some uncomfortable, lost, reflective, inquisitive, affirmed, and inspired.
I would like to thank The DC Arts Center for this incredible opportunity. I knew when I applied that this would be in alignment with my journey. Thank you all for supporting this PG baby’s vision and for providing a space for me to grow and learn. I would also like to thank my mentor, Jeffry Cudlin, for showing me the way and giving me that necessary hands-on learning experience. I thank fellow Apprentice Curator Benedetta Castrioto for being so supportive and helping me reach clarity in times of need. And I thank my sister, HOPE, and best friend, Tay, for always being there for me through it all.
Thank you to the performers who came to drop some bars and activate the space. I thank the artists—Geoffrey Edwards, Kalil “kllz” Hunter, Christina Marsh, and Jessica Valoris—for their exceptional work and courage to keep keeping on. It is your energy that makes my first curatorial project so special.
I give thanks to my ancestors and angels above for always guiding me to the light. This is my response to the call.
“The fabric of black life has often meant its very fabrication, making a way out of no way, and making it up as you go along.”
Kevin Young, The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness, 2012