
Ogemdi Ude, Hear (2022). Performance Documentation. Photo by Maria Baranova.
I am a performance and interdisciplinary artist, educator, and doula, taking a corporeal approach to Black femme legacies and futures, mourning, and memory. My physicality evokes the histories etched into my body: Afrobeat-filled Nigerian parties in childhood; Atlanta trap kickbacks in adolescence; postmodern dance training in college.
I build projects with Black femmes at the center - I make work for and with us. My work strives to support Black femmes in their grief, unpack the complex relationships between memory and the body, and improve the psychosomatic impact of past and expectant trauma.
In past work I created projections from childhood photos and videos, crafted soundscapes from interviews with old friends, sketched representations of my home before audiences, and distributed postcards with old text messages printed beside dance scores. I integrate movement, writing, vocals, and visual art to create intimate performances and installations that are rituals for processing grief and redefining personal and cultural narratives. I will be sharing Cameo, an interactive installation about preserving and losing memories, inspired by the children’s memory card game “Concentration”.
About Smack Mellon
Smack Mellon is a nonprofit arts organization located in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Smack Mellon’s mission is to nurture and support emerging, under-recognized mid-career and women artists in the creation and exhibition of new work, by providing exhibition opportunities, studio workspace, and access to equipment and technical assistance for the realization of ambitious projects. We see ourselves as a vehicle whereby under-represented artists can create, explore and exhibit their creative ideas outside the concerns of the commercial art world, offering many artists the exposure and recognition they deserve.