Exhibition Open: 16–18 May and on request on 23 and 24 May

Part of the Open Call series

By hard experience they had learnt that isolated efforts were doomed to failure,
— C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins

senakirfa A. & S*an D. Henry-Smith present new works in collaboration grounded in the poetics of hands and the logics of their phonic exchange. What precedes their collaboration is a shared collection of resonances kept in and held by poetry, field recordings, objects, and photographs.

senakirfa A. is an interdisciplinary artist and poet whose work is grounded and explores the poetics of African Diasporic world-making in Amsterdam. A.’s work across sculpture, screenprinting, zine-making, and writing is an extension of A.’s poetry practice, through which A. explores and centers poetic in(ter)ventions. A. is currently awarded the 3Package Deal Fellowship by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.

S*an D. Henry-Smith (b. 1992, New York) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Amsterdam, working across poetry, photography, sound, and performance. They earned an MFA from the Sandberg Instituut and have exhibited at ROZENSTRAAT (2023) and White Columns (2021). Their book "Wild Peach" (2020) was shortlisted for the PEN Open Book Award. Henry-Smith has received numerous fellowships, including from Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst and the Fulbright Program. Their work, rooted in Black and queer creative legacies, explores themes of witness, improvisation, and resistance against systems of exploitation. Engaging with histories of Black migrations, Henry-Smith rejects traditional representations of suffering or excellence, instead embracing slowness, memory, and nonlinear narratives. Their practice unfolds through photography, writing, sound, and installation, creating layered, multisensory experiences.