HYDRA.- In three channels, the exhibition The Bigger Picture displays a video recording of Self‘s first live performance, Sounding Board (2021). Written and directed by the artist, the play explores themes of domesticity, race, and gender. The dialogue is interspersed with music by Boney M, and the hand painted, sculpturesque stage – set in the bandstand of Harlem’s Jackie Robinson Park – employs the distinctive, brightly colored geometry and pattern found in her two-dimensional works. Wearing costumes and shoes designed by the artist in collaboration with UGG, the characters appear as if they are moving through her paintings, existing as living pictures. In her 2023 solo show, Feed Me, Kiss Me, Need Me, at CC Strombeek, Belgium, the artist transformed the recording for the first time into an autonomous video installation, for which she also composed a completely new soundtrack. The theatrical scenography not only refers to the original performance location, but also to the theatre of the cultural center.

The piece presents a domestic drama in which emotional communication, gender roles, and power dynamics within intimate relationships are explored through the script. For Self, it is also an experimental performance about human connection and specifically, how one should romantically maintain an artist. A male and female actors perform emotional dialogues that waver between honesty and absurdity. The Boney M cover band accentuates pivotal moments of the drama, much like a choir in a Greek play. Themes of duality and identity are heightened as viewers notice that the two-character play is performed by four different actors. In the middle of the play, the man and the woman switch their lines and repeat the previous dialogues. This results in an overlapping cacophony of accusations. During the performance, phrases are repeated so often that their meanings change, disappear or become entirely emptied.

In process and presentation, Tschabalala Self’s work explores the agency involved in myth creation and the psychological and emotional effects of projected fantasy. Self has sustained a practice wholly concerned with Black life and embodiment, with an intended audience from within that same community. In a flurry of stitches, Self assembles fully formed characters who, individually and situationally, hold power over their self-presentation and external perception. A power frequently denied to Black American people in their daily lives.