Where there's love overflowing
By E. Jane
Genderfail Press x The Kitchen, 2022
Paperback, 8 x 6 in.
52 pages
$24
WPA Note:
E. Jane performed at WPA in 2018 as part of the artist-organized project, CONTRABAND.
Description:
Where there’s love overflowing is a publication by E.Jane published by GenderFail in conjunction with the exhibition E Jane; Where there’s love overflowing, April 1–May 14, 2022 at The Kitchen. Where there’s love overflowing expands on the exhibition themes based on the powerful ballad “Home,” originally sung by Stephanie Mills as Dorothy in The Wiz in its Broadway premiere in 1975 and includes images and text featured in the exhibition. The publication also features new commissioned essay, "When I Think of Home," by artist and writer Hannah Black, written exclusively for the publication.
About the Author(s):
New York-based artist E. Jane envisions an exhibition as a score, presenting digital drawings, gouache wall paintings, and sculptural video installation surrounding a central, empty stage. These works draw upon the artist’s archive of performances of the powerful ballad “Home”, originally sung by Stephanie Mills as Dorothy in The Wiz in its Broadway premiere in 1975. The song’s lyrics reclaim the idea of a home full of love as one of your own imagination. Jane considers its relevance to generations of Black femme divas from Diana Ross in the film adaptation of The Wiz, to Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, and Jazmine Sullivan. Within this expansive timeline, Jane pursues how love is embodied and replicated in archival spaces, inserting their own version of “Home” by their performance persona MHYSA—an underground popstar diva who examines the labor and potency of Black celebrity.