Future People, a solo exhibition by Derrick Adams, was first conceived for Theaster Gates’ Stoney Island Arts Bank as is a multifaceted experience combining large scale two-dimensional works on paper mimicking spaceship windows with galactic scenes, a video projection animating the objects included in the collages, and sculpture installation referencing a space station control center, with an added live DJ set component.
The exhibition utilized Stony Island Arts Bank’s archive by incorporating or making reference to images, music and text from the Johnson Publishing Library, the Glass Lantern Slides Collection, the Edward J. Williams Collection of objects of “negrobilia,” and the Frankie Knuckles Vinyl Collection, with a focus on past, present and future ideas depicting black culture’s interest in futurism and its roots in Africa. The exhibition imagined the future as a place of discovery and adventure. The driving concept for this installation is Sun Ra’s Space Is The Place documentary, and the television series, Star Trek. It also acknowledges the AfroFuturism movement fusing elements of sci-fi and the African-American narrative with contemporary culture. Vigo would present works from this show and new works on the same theme made in the interim for the presentation at the Armory.
