Nikesha Breeze 
Born 1979, New Mexico, USA
Lives and works in Taos, USA 

Living Histories 2026
cotton gauze, wood, steel, cyanotype prints, furniture, sound, video projection, paper
Music Composer: Lazarus Nance-Letcher Vocalist: gina Breedlove
Choreographic support: Brontë Velez, Amara Tabor-Smith Professional Readers: Anthony Grace, April Hardy, Bahni Turpin, Bonita Brisker, Brianna S. Powell, Chad Singleton, Naadia Bakhit,
Corey Brooks, Elyssa Lassiter, Felicia Boswell, Gayle Samuels,
Greer C. Morrison, Jessica Funches, Masud Olufani, (Jonathan) Matthew Williams, Lauren Jillian Croom, S. Juain Young, William Delaney, Ugarhon Serrette (Sugar Johnson), Charles Reese Live performance by Nyaluak Leth, Basjia Almaan, Andrew Bukenya, Ran Fields
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney
Courtesy of the artist 

In 2001 the United State’s Library of Congress released Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, a digital archive featuring more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery transcribed from interviews undertaken by the Federal Writers’ Project across 17 US states between 1936 and 1938. Inspired by Born in Slavery, and knowing African American histories are actively being erased, Nikesha Breeze’s Living Histories amplifies these lost voices as an act of archival reclamation. 

In Living Histories, an immense African Boab (Baobab) tree sculpted from layered raw cotton gauze and corn, crops integral to the plantation economy of the antebellum South, serves as the gateway to an interactive, immersive installation combining performance, original music, spatial sound, and moving image. The work creates sanctuary-like spaces for intimate histories, reclaiming the voices and knowledge systems of formerly enslaved African American elders whose testimonies form the foundation of the installation. Collaborating with actors, musicians, and digital media artists, Breeze translates archival material into a multisensory environment of suspended textiles, shifting light, and resonant soundscapes that audiences physically move through, positioning history as active, embodied, and present while honouring the lives and cultural knowledge carried within these narratives. 

Working from a global African diasporic and Afro-Futurist perspective, Living Histories expands access to collective history and creates space for dialogue between past, present, and future, allowing these histories to continue shaping cultural memory and social consciousness.