✧ push picks #064 ✧

Aaron Samuel Mulenga is an interdisciplinary artist and Visual Studies Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). His area of study includes contemporary art of Africa, and the roles that museums play in shaping cultural narratives. Mulenga’s interest in Zambian culture and heritage led to his latest work which focuses on remembering the significant contribution of the African porters from East Africa called Tenga Tenga who carried the First World War on their backs. Mulenga holds a B.F.A. from the University of Cape Town an M.F.A from Rhodes University and an M.A from UCSC.

Currently I have an exhibition open at the Sesnon Gallery on the UCSC campus in Santa Cruz. This is my first Solo show in the United States, which will be running until the 8th of February. What is interesting to me is that this show is coming after another solo show I had in Zambia two months ago and a group show last month. It is interesting because I have felt like there was a dry spell and suddenly it is as though the floodgates have opened. My arms are continually open to the blessings that pour particularly when they come in the form of sharing my art with others.

I teach a class called Contemporary African Art or HAVC 117. I am always amazed by how many students will say to me after the course that this is their first time engaging with contemporary African art and artists. This class has revealed to me the huge gap that exists in the engagement with contemporary African art and scholarship in the Global North’s educational system. This class contributes to the education of these students by diversifying their learning, while also providing an opportunity for the minority Black students on our campus to feel connected to knowledge creation that highlights their place within visual arts and academia (something I personally struggled with for a long time).

Breath of Life (2023)

My Hero by Yo Maps

Moving the Centre: Positions & Locations of African Speculative Fiction by James Orao

I am not an avid bread eater, but I do enjoy knotted bread. Although the bread I mostly eat at home is this basic brown wheat bread. I had a similar type of bread for an exhibition with dried fish in my exhibition in Zambia to critically engage with scriptural connotations of five loaves of bread and two fish while also interrogating the food insecurity and the lack of accessibility that many Zambians are facing.

If you have anything to spare, please consider looking over this amazing community led resource of displaced Black families from the recent fires in California who could use help.