future is ritual — jen

Moon & Mirrors in the Cosmos

Moon & Mirrors in the Cosmos is a collection of mixed media photographs that offers a reflection of our relationship with our oldest elders and ancestors; the moon, water and trees. This project works against (settler) colonial logics of viewing these ancestors within an extractive, exploitative and accumulative lens. Instead, these photographs help to map and locate Black indigenous knowledge and spiritualities that offer alternative freedoms outside these systems; where our relationships with water, trees and the moon’s varied capacities are honoured, respected and reciprocated. 

Biography

Jen Katshunga or Ngalula Jen (NJ) is a Baluba-diasporic (Congolese) interdisciplinary artist, writer, researcher and cultural worker raised and based in T’karonto/Treaty 13 (Scarborough). In their expansive approaches to making: painting, writing, photography and performance, their work is invested in liberation and self-determination focusing on magic, memory and movement as conduits for these explorations. Jen’s art-making and cultural work is a testament of the embodied and spiritual knowledge they encompass as a storyteller, maker and aspiring healer. They can be found on Instagram: @iamngalulajen.