Re Branding My Love 2011

Editor: So, here we have Njideka Akunyili Crosby's mixed-media painting and collage, "Re Branding My Love," created in 2011. It feels intensely intimate, but also slightly fragmented, with those collage elements disrupting a clear narrative. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Oh, this piece vibrates with such quiet complexity! It’s like eavesdropping on a very private, interior moment, isn’t it? The orange background hums with a vibrant energy that feels both inviting and slightly unsettling against the somber tones of the figures. Do you notice how the collage elements seem to almost obscure parts of the bodies? Editor: Yeah, like a deliberate attempt to both reveal and conceal simultaneously! Almost like a screen. Curator: Exactly! It makes me wonder about memory, and how we piece together fragments to create a cohesive narrative of ourselves and our relationships. It's deeply personal but also touches on broader themes of cultural identity and hybridity. The layered surfaces reflect the complexities of living between cultures, of "rebranding" one's identity in a new context, maybe? Editor: Rebranding… It’s like the title itself hints at this ongoing process. I wonder what the figures are dreaming of. Curator: Or what memories haunt them. It reminds me of personal archaeology – sifting through layers of experience to understand the present. Akunyili Crosby invites us to do the same as viewers, piecing together our own interpretations from the fragments she presents. Editor: That makes a lot of sense. I hadn't considered the memory aspect so directly, or that notion of cultural identity, it provides another entry point into reading the painting. I thought it was just about lovers at rest, so focused on each other they forgot their surrounding! Curator: Precisely! Isn't that the joy of art? It keeps unfolding with each new perspective.