IMAGES

MOVING

Re:Future (2019–2025) is a performance project that combines speculative history, temporality, and ritual practice. Developed from Jackson’s 2019 video work “The future is a constant wake,” the project draws on Christina Sharpe’s concept of “the wake” as a space of aftermath and continuity. Presented during CU Denver’s Performance Art Work at the Emmanuel Gallery, the work was documented in two formats: an overhead projector connected to a monitor, and a live performance with witnesses seated on either side.

In the video, viewers see Jackson composing a scene live using a mini projector, soil, and print blocks. Jackson positions the blocks, sprinkles soil on top, then brushes the surface to reveal text. The overhead projector shifts focus between the soil and the projected digital image from the mini projector. The performance also incorporated a lecture in which Jackson discussed racial materiality and nonlinear narrative in relation to memory.

SOIL, SAND, BONE (2023) Commissioned for Michael J. Love’s premiere of “(RHY)PISTEMOLOGY! (OR, TO KNOW THROUGH THE RHYTHM),” performed at Ground Floor Theater in Austin, Texas, on April 12-13, 2023, the film presents sequences of Love working with a kite alongside repeated shots of hands moving through soil. The visual elements reference the development of house and techno music and incorporate the architectural form of the praise house, a small frame structure historically used for worship. Praise houses were built by enslaved Africans in the United States before the Civil War and continued to be constructed by freedman after the Emancipation in 1863.

The video alternates between archival and newly filmed footage, showing close-up and mid-range shots of manual gestures, fabric in motion, and environmental textures. Movement is paced with shifts in light and framing, creating a visual rhythm that connects outdoor activity with historical imagery.

A Welcoming Place (2020–2022) was created for Jackson’s exhibition at Women & Their Work in Austin, TX, as part of an exploration of place, memory, and environmental observation. The work features recorded conversations with six Black and Brown Indigenous Austinites–half born in the city–reflecting on community, belonging, and advice for newcomers of color. Using the idea of “forecasting” as a guiding frame, Jackson connects these voices to the language and imagery of meteorology, considering how communities read and respond to shifting social and environmental conditions.

The video blends live-action footage, archival material, and digital compositing. Jackson appears outdoors holding a large black weather balloon, intercut with re-animated archival footage of U.S. and British weather balloon systems and public archive images depicting Black and Brown life. These visual layers move between tactile interactions with soil and expansive views of skies and mapping patterns, creating a rhythm that links intimate gestures to broader atmospheric and historical contexts.

Descendance (2020) was created by Jackson as part of the 2021 Jacob Lawrence Legacy Residency. Filmed using drone footage, the video features interdisciplinary tap dancer Michael J. Love performing within an empty swimming pool at the Goerge Washington Carver Center in Austin,TX. The artist and dancer move through an American flag stenciled in soil, organically altering its form over time. The work is accompanied by an original score, “Pious Walk,” by jazz composer Joseph C. Dyson Jr.

The video takes place in an empty swimming pool, where an American flag made from stenciled soil covers the floor. Dancer Michael J. Love moves across the flag with tap steps, shifting and scattering the soil. Drone footage alternates between close-ups of his footwork and wide overhead views, showing the flag’s gradual transformation. The performance is set to Joseph C. Dyson Jr.’s instrumental score.