The Queens Museum presents Nsenga Knight: Close to Home (May 19, 2024 – January 19, 2025), the In Situ Artist Fellow’s first museum solo exhibition. Modeled after Nsenga Knight’s family residences from their past six years living in Cairo, Egypt, Close to Home is an installation that draws on the artist’s Afro Caribbean American Muslim heritage to honor the domestic space as a custodian of cultural and spiritual traditions. The exhibition also includes artifacts from the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, focusing on representations of newly postcolonial Islamic African and Caribbean nations.
NEW YORK (May 2024) —Close to Home is an installation that honors the domestic space as a custodian of cultural and spiritual traditions by providing support and comfort to forge appreciation for heritage and their continuity. Modeled after Nsenga Knight’s family residences from their past six years living in Cairo, Egypt, the installation’s eclectic atmosphere reflects the historic and cosmopolitan. While furnished in various materials and styles, old and new, this family home is also adorned with artifacts from the 1964 – 1965 New York World’s Fair as well as artworks by Knight, including paintings, collages, prints, videos, and wallpaper.
A Brooklyn-born Afro-Caribbean American Muslim artist, Knight researched the Queens Museum’s 1964 – 1965 New York World’s Fair Archives with a focus on the representations of the then-newly postcolonial Islamic African and Caribbean nations. The historical trajectory of these nations and their influence on Black Americans has emerged as the central focus of her exhibition.
Knight presents this exhibition as both a home and a forum for “Peace Through Understanding,” echoing the theme of the 1964 – 1965 New York World’s Fair. She extends this concept into the exterior section of the installation. Hovering above are words initially spoken by martial arts masters at the SWAM Academy of Modern Martial Arts in South Jamaica, Queens. Transcribed by Knight word-by-word, these “poems” encapsulate their wisdom about self defense, spirituality, and ethical integrity imparted at the renowned Black Muslim owned dojo. The act of safe-keeping and hope for peace extends to the toy paragliders in the exhibition. These airborne devices carry complex yet arbitrary layers of symbolism related to the Museum’s building history. The New York City Building housed the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1947 when they passed Resolution 181 to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. By juxtaposing SWAM poetry with paragliders and parachutes, Knight considers how to position peace and safety amidst conflict and oppression.
Food culture also played a pivotal role in the World’s Fair. Metem (2024), a three-channel video presented on the dining table in the installation, documents lively conversation among Knight and three generations of her family members at the exact table in the exhibition sharing the history of their journeys from Guyana to the UK or to New York over home cooked Guyanese dishes. Close to Home will also host a scheduled series of social gatherings by serving tea and coffee in this installation. With this act of hospitality, Knight calls on viewers to consider the power of sensorial and experiential engagement to foster understanding, connection, and appreciation among people from various corners of the world.
Nsenga Knight: Close to Home is curated by Hitomi Iwasaki, Director of Exhibitions/Curator.
About Nsenga Knight
Nsenga Knight (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1981) is an In Situ Artist Fellow at the Queens Museum. She earned an MFA from University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Howard University. She has exhibited her work internationally, including: Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo, Egypt (2022); Drawing Center, New York, NY (2017, 2016); Project Row Houses, Houston, TX (2015); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (2011); among others. Knight is a recipient of grants from Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2019), Foundation for Contemporary Art (2016), Brooklyn Arts Council (2007). She was an artist-in-residence at BRICworkspace, Brooklyn, NY (2019); and Film/Video Arts Center, New York, NY (2005) among others. She lives and works in New York.
About the In Situ Artist Fellowship
The Queens Museum presents three exhibitions as part of the In Situ Artist Fellowship. This two year fellowship provides artists rent-free studio space and a full-time salaried position at the Museum, encouraging co-creation, relationship building, situated research, and experimentation alongside Queens Museum’s staff and communities. Independent exhibitions have developed from each fellow’s engagement with the complexities of the Museum’s site, current and future programming, and Queens Museum’s archives of materials related to the 1939–1940 and 1964–1965 New York World’s Fairs that occurred in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Funding and Support
Nsenga Knight: Close to Home is made possible in part by lead support from the Mellon Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Ford Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Queens Museum Exhibitions Circle.
The Queens Museum is housed in the New York City Building, which is owned by the City of New York. The Museum is supported, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with Mayor Eric Adams, the Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, and the New York City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne E. Adams.
Major funding is generously provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ford Foundation, Hearst Foundations, Jerome Foundation, Lambent Foundation, MacMillan Family Foundation, Mellon Foundation, E.A. Michelson Philanthropy, New York Community Trust, Richmond County Savings Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
About the Queens Museum
The Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows – Corona Park presents contemporary art, events of hyperlocal and international impact, and educational programs reflecting the diversity of Queens and New York City. Changing exhibitions present the work of emerging and established artists, both local and global, that often explore contemporary social issues, as well as the rich history of its site. The Museum works outside its walls through engagement initiatives ranging from multilingual outreach and educational opportunities for adult immigrants, to a plethora of community led art and activism projects. The Museum’s educational programming connects with school children, teens, families, seniors as well as those individuals with physical and mental disabilities. The Queens Museum is located on property owned in full by the City of New York, and its operation is made possible in part by public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Media Contact
Heryte T. Tequame, Director of Communications and Digital Projects, Queens Museum: press@queensmuseum.org