Atlantica Lands in Miami : April Bey X The Underline

With support from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami’s public linear park and cultural green space, The Underline, announced its first inaugural AIR (Artist-In-Residence), April Bey, earlier this month. The Underline’s mission is to activate communal learning, participation, and artistic engagement through this new endeavor in collaboration with Bey. The Underline’s Art Advisory Council, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Art in Public Places Program Professional Advisory Committee, and Trust selected the multi-media artist for her bold, community-rooted, and imaginative style of work.

Born in the Bahamas, Bey is an LA-based visual artist and educator (she’s a tenured professor at Glendale College) known for her colorful works, which combine traditional materials like woven textiles with untraditional ones such as fur, glitter, and vinyl to create scenes from her imagined speculative universe, Atlantica. Bey and The Underline are excited to bring Atlantica, a surrealist utopia representative of Black diasporic memory, joy, and persistence, to Miami’s public green space like never before. Known for her social critique and surreal speculative futurism, Bey’s two-dimensional previous collections and works have explored Blerd culture, post-colonialism, social media, feminism, and Afrofuturism.

They have been showcased in solo exhibitions at institutions like the Nevada Museum of Art, the Museum of Art and History, and the California African American Museum, and group exhibitions at renowned museums like The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, Nassau, The Bahamas; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA. Represented by Tern Gallery in Nassau, Bahamas, and Vielmetter Los Angeles, her work has also made appearances at international art events like Frieze, biennales in The Bahamas, Italy, Spain, and Accra, Ghana, West Africa, and local Miami powerhouse Art Basel.

Deeply inspired by stories told to her around blue holes and bonfires in Eleuthera, her residency with The Underline will highlight the identity and legacy of Little Bahamas, a historic Miami community, through artistic engagement and free, interactive events. From February through June, Bey’s planned public art installation, which will be located south of the Douglas Metrorail Station, will include a central sculptural piece and four painted columns designed with her signature vibrant, witty, and maximalist flair. In conjunction with the public artwork, The Underline’s initiative will bring free, community-driven gatherings like local culinary tastings and educational programs.

I spoke with April about her residency on a sunny Friday morning, which, given that she wakes up every day at four am, must have felt like afternoon. Anyone familiar with Bey’s oeuvre will know that fruits like pineapples contain magical qualities and stature in the realm of Atlantica, so I started off with a hard-hitting icebreaker for the artist: what fruit would April Bey be? Bey offered soursop, a fruit she was the first to introduce me to, as her answer. The large, spiky green fruit with a creamy, tangy flesh hails from a tropical evergreen tree from Central and South America and tastes like a mix of pineapple, strawberry, and citrus. Used in a variety of desserts including shakes and juices, Bey explained that besides its wonderful taste, soursop feels allegorical to her desire to inspire feelings of comfort, fabulousness, and magic.

These are all traits that describe, by extension of herself, Atlantica, Bey’s futuristic utopian alien planet represented throughout her body of work. Atlantica was born out of a goofy but genius way for her father to reframe racism to her at a young age in the form of an alien origin story. When she had asked him why she and he “had features that looked different from others,” he informed her that they were secretly superior alien beings sent down to secretly spy and observe those on Earth. The story, which spun a difficult situation into an impactful, magical, positive moment of reassurance, has now developed into an entire universe.

Stories are essential to understanding April’s worldbuilding. As a big fantasy reader, favorites of hers include The Gilda Stories and Harry Potter. Bey’s bibliophile qualities show in works like “I Know All About What You Want to Know All About,” a work which explores Atlantica’s librarians. Given her reputation as a reader and status as an educator, I had to ask her what books she was reading during this residency and, if Atlantica had a literary canon, what kind of stories and media are required reading. April mentioned that lately a few pieces of literature and media feeding her imagination include Marlon James’ Dark Star Trilogy (she mentions the first book, Black Leopard, Red Wolf), an African mythological world of political tensions between the landscape of a Northern and Southern Kingdom, and N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, a science fantasy set on a continent constantly ravaged by climate events. Fascinated by science fiction, Bey is also heavily into Wolf 359, a highly rated independently produced podcast following the tradition of Golden Age radio dramas. The audio drama centers on the chaotic crew of the U.S.S. Hephaestus, a station orbiting the deep space star Wolf 359. The podcast combines elements of thriller, comedy, espionage, isolation, and deep character relationships. The transporting space story keeps Bey engaged and inspired during and in between her time painting and crafting Atlantica, a place where there are mystical portals, space stations found in blue holes with bustling beauty supply stores, and magical afropineapple venues.

Thematically, Bey’s work often places humor as a Trojan horse. The Internet’s form of communication has long informed Bey’s visual language. Her graduate thesis was a “meme thesis.” Her work often contains advertising language, slogans, graphics, and archival aesthetics. She uses the look of vintage ads combined with slogans like in Atlantica’s Colonial Swag adverts, which toe the line between sincerity and irony. One recurring symbol in the Atlantica ads is hair and beauty. Michaela Angela Davis and Tracee Ellis Ross’s series The Hair Tales examined the politics of Black hair on a mainstream platform. Yet for a while, Bey’s work has also engaged in that conversation, exploring multi-media combinations like hair relaxer and screenprinting and the phrase she coined “Creamy Crack.” Beauty supply stores are almost sacred spaces in Atlantica through the recurring royal crown motif.

As a city known for its commerce and beauty, Miami will no doubt have plenty of inspiration for Bey, who will incorporate motifs important to the community here. She’s aware of who these advertisements are talking to. The artist has previously spoken about the ads in the arrival area of the Bahama airport only catering to portray tourists. Only their experience of the island is on display due to the robust travel industry that supports the Bahamas. But when asked whether Bey had been inspired by any ads or storefronts in Little Bahamas, Bey said she was rather inspired by Miami’s nature for this project.

As someone who grew up in the Bahamas, lives in LA, and is now doing a residency in Miami, Bey seems to be someone who has a special relationship to nature and the sea. Calling the City of Angels home also means that she is a self-proclaimed plant lady because it is a place so densely populated and sparse. In addition to her well-known fictional advertisements, Bey’s work is also known to present nature as magical. Lush vegetation with beauty powers, landscapes of freedom, blue holes that function as portals, animals like whales being guardians.

I wonder how Bey will represent South Florida’s nature in Atlantica’s realm and cosmology and ask her how she plans to bring Atlantica to The Underline or vice versa. What will Atlantican aliens take away from Miami? Bey describes that on her walkabouts around the city, she was tempted to take a little clipping off select plants to catalog them as inspiration.Bey has always been interested in designing with intention. Her worlds contain natural and flowing portals, hidden fake brands, and pineapple venues. She says having had more time to explore Miami, she’s thinking about incorporating local plants into her installation. The main point of her inspiration has been from Bahamian blue holes, yet because this is an ever-evolving process, she is highly interested in incorporating Miami’s flora into her installation at The Underline. Having horticultural landscape design as an extension of her artwork is a priority to give it a sense of natural growth and permanence. As someone living in LA, where green space is rare, Bey loves Miami’s abundant vegetation. Beyond the natural plants and groves that surround Miami’s streets, she is also inspired by the surprise scenes that unfolded in and around The Underline. She describes adorable scenes of baby chickens and a group of local boys performing an off-the-cuff tune on an available open piano. Along with her hybrid team of talented artists and builders, Bey hopes to integrate vibrant scenes of local flora, fauna, and people.

Last weekend, The Underline celebrated Bey’s residency at an event highlighting Little Bahamas. Bey is excited to work within a historic Miami community that carries ties to where she’s originally from. Bey says that the small act of exchanging hellos with each other in the Bahamas is a characteristic she found in the small enclave. It’s this metaphorical sense of eye contact and communal space which Bey hopes to bring to her residency. In her mission to imbue cultural warmth into her residency, she has made efforts to include local food tasting events in her programming.

At the free Underline x April Bey event, complimentary traditional Bahamian dishes like Johnny Cake and Chicken Souse were served as she unveiled more specifics about her residency. Bey has a natural interest in local culture and food and has an avid taste for ceviche. She has full intent to recognize Miami’s Spanish, Cuban, and Latin American communities and incorporate elements of their heritage into her art and engagements in Miami. Her goal is to have Miamians bond together near her art and feel like they are “in someone’s living room.” Except this living room will be the size of a plaza.

Physically, Bey’s work is known for its scale. Her installations and shows have spread through large gallery halls and exhibitions, but public art is slightly different territory. Although the outdoor space might pose a different challenge, it is also a way to create a wealth of new and interesting ways to present Atlantica, from the four painted columns to the sculptural installation at The Underline Plaza. Do you plan to insert your concept directly into the space or did the space lead you to the design? I asked her. Bey confirmed that The Underline as an environment has increasingly informed her evolving design process. During Art Basel, Bey planned a site visit to The Underline, where she was influenced by the city’s flora. She plans to work with The Underline’s Miami artisan and horticulture team to plan a ring of plants to surround and complement her center residency concept with intention in her design to accept as much nature as possible. She’s also aware of how she wants people to interact with the space actively as opposed to simply walk by. A seating space is planned as part of her installation for folks to sit, enjoy, and take photos.

Aesthetically, Bey’s project is extremely apt for the city. Miami is a vibrant cultural center known for exciting artists at cultural institutions like the Bakehouse, innovative international showcases like Art Basel, and maximalist flair in both architecture and character. Maximalist, sparkly, and luscious materials like fur and glitter, which are usually coded as feminine or queer, are used throughout Bey’s body of work. She’s notably made an effort to source these materials from women-owned businesses and has gone on many travels to research and source them. I asked Bey whether she had any intention of approaching local Miami artisans to find materials or inspiration. Bey responded that she was certainly interested in connecting with more local figures and took note of the Bakehouse. Specifically, she said that her sculptural work at The Underline would emphasize the flamboyancy and lushness of the city with a personal take on a pearl necklace coin purse with a pink pearlescent finish. She hopes that her work inspires peace and love, which are found in so many communities in the city, including South Beach.

Pride, joy, and introspection are central to Bey’s work. When asked what it means to bring joy and introspection to Miami through this beautiful public installation at this specific time, Bey notes that queer people can often feel like aliens and that she wants to create a special place where people feel safe to make beautiful memories. She hopes that her pineapple Venus sculpture becomes a local point of reference. She can see it being a part of Miami’s local jargon in the form of “meet me at the pineapple Venus woman for a date.” The Underline, which is a respite from the hustle and bustle of the city, exists like a floating magical street one can cross and enter a fantasy realm of energy and tranquility. And April Bey will transport Miami citizens there.

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Chiara Padejka

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Atlantica Lands in Miami : April Bey X The Underline

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