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Infinite Essence

This series by Mikael Owunna began with my exploration of indigenous African knowledge systems, and he set out to create a visual style that would uniquely capture their cosmic grandeur, dense symbolism, and presentation of Blackness as the divine, cosmic source from which everything emerges.

For this work, Owunna leveraged his training as an engineer to build a camera flash that only transmits ultraviolet light, hand painted the bodies of nude Black models with fluorescent paints that only glow under ultraviolet light, and photographed them in total darkness. For the fraction of a second that the shutter snapped, a transfiguration happened: these bodies were illuminated as the starry universe itself, and scenes inspired by the archive of African diasporic myth sprang to life.

Below you will find selections of Prints (Fine Art, Framed, Metal) and Merchandise (Greeting Cards, Hoodies, Magnets, Mugs, Notebooks, Phone Cases, Puzzles, Tapestries, Tote Bags).

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