The Black Atlantic at MSU Museum: Images, Memory and the Unfinished Archive

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The Black Atlantic in Reality Check · MSU Museum · 3 September–12 December 2026

What happens when an image looks like historical evidence, but the life it depicts remains only partly recorded?

That question sits at the centre of The Black Atlantic, now on view in the group exhibition Reality Check at Michigan State University Museum in East Lansing. The exhibition brings artists and researchers into a wider conversation about artificial intelligence, memory, identity and the decisions that shape our technological future.

The Black Atlantic installation at MSU Museum, with framed works above a display case and a digital kiosk to the right
The Black Atlantic, installation view in Reality Check, MSU Museum, 2026. Photo: Doug Coombe, Courtesy MSU Museum.

Looking at what survives—and what is missing

The Black Atlantic grows from research into Black maritime histories and the gaps within the archive. My Jamaican and Newfoundland family histories give this work a personal point of departure: the Atlantic connects places, labour and lives that are too often discussed separately.

A recurring presence in the project is W.H., a Black sailor whose remains were discovered at L’Anse au Loup, Labrador, in 1987. The surviving traces of his life leave many questions unresolved. The work approaches that uncertainty through research and speculation, keeping the distinction between documented material and imagined possibilities visible.

I use AI-generated imagery as something to examine and interrupt. Images are compared with online archival sources to assess where they align with historical evidence, where they repeat familiar conventions and where they invent. That comparison cannot authenticate a generated image. It can, however, reveal how easily visual plausibility becomes mistaken for knowledge.

An encounter across images, objects and screens

At MSU, framed images sit alongside objects in a display case and a digital interface. The installation asks viewers to move between different ways of encountering the past: looking at an image, reading a text, examining an object and engaging with a screen. Each carries a different expectation of authority.

The dense black forms and interruptions in the images keep absence in view. They resist the temptation to make an incomplete history look complete. For me, the ethical question is inseparable from the visual one: how can an artwork bring attention to a life without pretending to possess it?

Two visitors looking at The Black Atlantic installation during the MSU Museum fall opening celebration
Visitors with The Black Atlantic at the MSU Museum fall opening celebration, 9 September 2026. Photo: Doug Coombe, Courtesy MSU Museum.

Visit the exhibition

Reality Check is on view at MSU Museum through 12 December 2026. Developed by the Museum’s CoLab Studio, it invites visitors to consider where AI should be embraced, changed or refused. I am pleased to have The Black Atlantic contribute a perspective grounded in history, representation and the responsibilities of image-making.

My thanks to the MSU Museum team for bringing the project into this conversation, and to Doug Coombe for these installation photographs.

Exhibition information · View the opening photographs · Explore my work

For curatorial enquiries, available works or further information about The Black Atlantic, contact my studio.

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