Now John Sims returns to Columbia, South Carolina with his solo exhibition AfroDixia: A Righteous Confiscation and an artist residency at the prestigious 701 Center for Contemporary Art (701 CCA). The show is on view through June 25th and features all major elements of his 20 year project, including two new installations: “Five Flags: A Group Hanging” and “Five Urns for Five Flags”. His residency will include an AfroDixie listening session: an audio-visual-poetic confrontation of the song’s dark legacy as the Confederacy’s anthem, as well as a subversive re-working through remixing, remapping and cross-appropriating its music with an assortment black music genres: Spiritual, Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Funk Calypso, Samba, Soul, R&B, House, and Hip Hop. Additionally, there will be a table reading of Sims’ dramatic play in development and a screening of his related film work.
Currently, “The AfroDixie Remixes” is installed as a sound piece at the Confederate Chapel at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art as a part of the exhibition Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture and Sonic Impulse, curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver. This exhibition runs from May 23 through September 6, 2021. As a part of the programming, the artist will present his AfroDixie Remixes listening session as a virtual presentation on July 30, 2021, featuring as respondents Virginia Poet Laureate Luisa Igloria and Chloe Edwards, president of BLM in Richmond among others poets, academics and community leaders.
In addition to the show in Columbia and in Richmond, Sims will be in residency at the Houston Museum of African American Culture, performing his annual Burn and Bury Confederate Flag annual event for Memorial Day, May 31, 2021 in response to and conversation with the museum’s newly acquired Confederate monument, Spirit of the Confederacy. On Juneteenth, June 19, he will present his another AfroDixie Remixes listening session featuring area respondents.
On June 3rd, Sims will present his installation “Restorative Resurrection” at the Tampa Museum of Art as part of Skyway 2021, an exhibition featuring 53 artists across four Tampa Bay area museums.