Photo: Untitled (2019) by Tyler Adams

Martine Syms explores pervasive archetypes and depictions of black experience in American television and media, combining conceptualism, humour and social commentary to explore the sign of blackness in the public imagination. Drawing from early cinema, television, the internet, social media, and ambient footage produced by phones and surveillance, Syms addresses the ways in which representations of black identity and gender have been shaped throughout the history of moving image. 

Viewers are invited to move through an immersive installation rendered in Syms’ signature purple – a reference to both to Alice Walker’s 1982 novel The Colour Purple and the special effects backdrops used in film and video. An exposed wall scaffold zig zags across the gallery creating multiple vantage points through which to encounter Syms’ ongoing episodic project SHE MAD (2015-present). A series of mirrored panels are cut to resemble ‘cookie’ filters - a device used to create lighting effects in film and theatre.

Further details: tramway.org