In this episode of 'Meet the artists', filmmaker, writer, activist, and storyteller Tourmaline invites us into her studio on the 28th floor of the World Trade Center. From there, her introspective practice transforms often forgotten stories – like those of trans activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Riveria – into films. ‘With my art, I'll take what is considered to be background, like Black life, Black trans life, and put that in the foreground,' Tourmaline says in the film.
In the episode, she calls on each of us to acknowledge that the experience of pleasure is our right. 'We get to relax, […] we get to release outdated ways of thinking that the harder you work the more important that you are,' she reflects. Her practice also touches on space travel and Afro-futurism, which she understands as a way of imagining 'what's possible, even in conditions that tell us otherwise.'
Tourmaline is represented by Chapter NY and will be on view in the Statement sector at Art Basel.