While briefly hospitalized as a child, Tadáskía discovered reading, writing, and drawing as ways to imagine community. This work was inspired in part by a storybook she received during her hospital stay, and in the artist’s words, serves as “a fable, but without the moral.” The hopeful tale is also influenced by the writings of Black feminist thinkers like Audre Lorde. It begins with a dedication to her “Black sisters and Black brothers,” to “Black women and Black trans people,” as well as to “people who care about children and to people who are equally children at heart.”
When I was drawing, my mother, Elenice Guarani, and my aunt, Gracilene Guarani, who are both Black, Afro-Indigenous women, told me to add more color because color is life,” the artist has said. From her earliest art-making experiences as a child, collaboration has been a central aspect of Tadáskía’s practice. To produce this large wall drawing, she worked with a team of assistants over several weeks as they built up its prismatic palette.
Coloring assistants: Karen del Aguila, Antônia Bara, René Dominguez, Nereida Patricia, and Anthony Rosado
Gallery label from Projects: Tadáskía, May 24, 2024–October 14, 2024