Aisha Cousins (born 1978) is

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

-based artist. Cousins writes performance art scores that encourage black audiences to explore their parallel histories and diverse

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

. Her work has been widely performed at art institutions such as Weeksville Heritage Center, BRIC,

Project Row Houses Project Row Houses is a development in the Third Ward, Houston, Third Ward area of Houston, Texas. Project Row Houses includes a group of shotgun houses restored in the 1990s. Eight houses serve as studios for visiting artists. Those houses are ...

, the Kitchen, the Brooklyn Museum of Art,

MoCADA Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), is Brooklyn's first and only contemporary art museum dedicated to the art and culture of Africa and its diaspora. Since 2023, the museum has operated within an expanded campus which includes ...

, and

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution at 2201 Jackson Avenue in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City, United States. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, th ...

Early life and education

Cousins was born in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

and is of Afro-American and Caribbean descent. In 2000, Cousins received a B.A. in Studio Art with coursework in

Black Studies Black studies or Africana studies (with nationally specific terms, such as African American studies and Black Canadian studies), is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of ...

and

Sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

Career

From 2008 to 2012, Cousins worked as a

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

ist, doing private studies and working with

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers, and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental performance art, art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finishe ...

artists

Ben Vautier Benjamin Vautier (; 18 July 1935 – 5 June 2024), also known mononymously as Ben, was a French visual artist. Early life Benjamin Vautier was born on 18 July 1935 in Naples, Italy, to a French family. He was the great-grandson of the Swiss p ...

and Geoff Hendricks. In 2012, she was awarded a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council to produce a guide for her project designed for black youths whose schools have lost

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

funding.

Artistic practice

Aisha Cousins writes

scores –

do-it-yourself "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi- ...

instructions – for live art projects that engage black audiences from different backgrounds. Through her work Cousins encourages audiences and participants to explores ideas around beauty and the changes taking place in black communities. In 2011, Cousins formed Transmission Completed, a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

project from her arts studio, to deliver her art to black neighborhoods to engage groups of people that would not normally feel comfortable viewing art in a museum or gallery.

"Diva Dutch" series

In Diva Dutch, Cousins worked with black women from around the world. She worked with local hairdressers to braid 15-foot-long cornrows, which were used as a double Dutch ropes that were connected to the heads of black women. The braided double Dutch rope connects the two women literally and

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

ically to the

social history Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians. Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...

of double Dutch. "It's a natural evolution of things that black girls in black

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

s across the country already do", says Cousins. Cousins performed Diva Dutch on the streets of Bed-Stuy (Brooklyn),

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

(London) and Barbès-Rochechouart (Paris).

"From Here I Saw What Happened and I Could Not Understand"

Also known as the "Obama Skirt Project." In this series, Cousins continues her ongoing engagement with black audiences to explore ideas of beauty and the different realities of modern black life. "The Obama Skirt Project" sets out to create dialogues between black women using

African textiles African textiles are textiles from various locations across the Africa, African continent. Across Africa, there are many distinctive styles, techniques, dyeing methods,decorative and functional purposes. These textiles hold cultural significance ...

printed with images of

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

’s face. Cousins was inspired by a trip she took to

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

when she was 16. She was drawn to the fabrics worn by Senegalese women featuring the faces of presidential candidates. Cousins was taken aback that the faces on the Senegalese skirts were black, which she wasn't used to seeing in the United States. In 2008, moved by Obama's election, Cousins chose to collect and wear different African fabrics from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

and

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

that were printed with Obama’s image. Cousins used African

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

s in her Brooklyn neighborhood, to create skirts and dresses that she wore every day for the first year of his presidency. The following year, she began recruiting other black women in her community to wear them as well. She used the project as a way to encourage a communal discussion about the significance of Obama’s presidency.

"The Soulville Census"

The 2015 ''Soulville Census'' is the "sister project" to "From Here I Saw What Happened and I Could Not Understand" also known as "The Obama Skirt Project". The 2015 ''Soulville Census'' took place from May to October 2015 in Brooklyn, New York. A team of "census workers" roamed Brooklyn's black cultural festivals asking ''Soulville Census'' questions to document just how diverse the USA's black population is. Along the way, the "census workers" engaged black Americans from a range of backgrounds in exploring how the terms used to describe blackness can enhance or undermine the understanding of the state of black America
Some of the favorite responses chosen
''The Soulville Census'' is a performance art score (set of written instructions for a live art project). The score reads simply ''"Create a census that gathers the data the 2010 US Census missed."'' It was composed by artist Aisha Cousins in response to the Census Bureau's decision to lump black folks of all backgrounds (Afro-American, Caribbean, and African) into a single checkbox.

"Beauty Shop Project"

In 2014, Cousins spoke at

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

about ideas of beauty and changes taking place in students' worlds. The goal of the "Beauty Shop Project" is to generate research about how community-based black barber and beauty shops can be sources of creativity and ideas directed towards improving quality of life, proactive citizenship and forming stronger communities.

Selected performances and exhibitions

* 2008–2013: "Diva Dutch" performed at: ** Downstreet Art Festival,

North Adams, MA North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 12,961 as of the 2020 census. Best known as the home of the largest contempo ...

** Come Out and Play.

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

, NY **

, Round 31. Houston, TX **

Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennes ...

. Nashville, TN * 2011:

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

. New York, NY, "The Top 4 Reasons the Democrats Lost the Election (Steve Harvey Style)", performed at Alpha's Bet Is Not Over Yet: Steffani Jemison and Friends." * 2011:

, New York, NY, "How to Listen To

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. He is often regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all ...

(for Nia, Nya, and Kamaria)" performed by Clifford Owens, Clifford Owens: Anthology * 2011–2014:

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

. Brooklyn, NY, "Sit" * 2012: Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn, NY, "The Soulville Census" * 2013: BRIC Rotunda Gallery. Brooklyn, NY, "Cultural Fluency" * 2014:

. Brooklyn, NY, "Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Beyond"

Awards and residencies

* 2013: The Laundromat Project's Create Change Public Artist in Residence for BedStuy (Brooklyn, NY) * 2014–15:

Franklin Furnace Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, and manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. This locale produced more species of minerals (o ...

Fund Recipient, Brooklyn, NY, for "Soulville Census" * 2014–15: Fireworks Residency Award (collaboration with

Greg Tate Gregory Stephen Tate (October 14, 1957December 7, 2021) was an American writer, musician, and producer. A long-time critic for ''The Village Voice'', Tate focused particularly on African-American music and culture, helping to establish hip-h ...

and Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber), BRIC. Brooklyn, NY.

References

External links

* * http://soulvillecensus.weebly.com/ * http://www.pregamemagazine.com/featured-artist-aisha-cousins/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Cousins, Aisha 1978 births American artists Artists from Boston Living people