I am committed to investigating technological healing modalities within the quotidian. How do everyday objects such as mirrors, for instance, function as an interactive interface between the psyche and the built environment? Grounded in a framework that posits performance and performativity, a concept developed by gender studies scholar Judith Butler, as technologies that aid humans in repair and replenishment post sociological and psychological “rupture,” my research draws upon Legacy Russell’s “Glitch Feminism”, Womanism, Afro-Surrealism, Afro-futurism, and Black Dada to inform a structure of healing possibility that is both historical and speculative. By weaving fiber, text, sculpture, moving images, performance, and electronics, I shape a dynamic interdisciplinary approach to personal, familial, and collective archives toward the reclamation of what was lost, disparaged, demonized, and fragmented due to colonialism and misogyny.  

My practice centers the body as a technological site of performance in relationship to land and history. My research identifies the body as a matrix of complex biological systems that mirror the cycles and rhythms of nature, holding immense creative potential that is organized by ideas, and expressed through action, and access to material resources; human beings are, by definition, inherently technological. Through the utilization of this ancient technology we can build equitable futures, sustainable ecosystems, and expand notions of liberation and possibility.

I employ the legacy and impact of Detroit’s cultural production, specifically techno, which took inspiration from the automotive industry and transformed the way electronic music is produced and experienced globally, and Detroit’s self-proclaimed identity as the hair capital which  introduced flamboyant and sculptural hair pageantry into global consciousness, as models for creative freedom and artistic innovation. As a core component of my work, collaboration permits for a polyphonic oeuvre that includes albums, short films, sculpture, braiding performances, DJ sets and site-specific performance work.

Biography

Kesiena Wanogho, aka KESSWA, is an award winning interdisciplinary artist from Detroit, Michigan.

As a performance artist, producer, and filmmaker, her work integrates music, electronics, fiber, sound, and light. “Cherry Blossom Baby” (2024), her most recent musical collaboration with Shigeto, acclaimed jazz drummer and electronic music producer, was released on Ghostly International. Their film, “Is My Mind A Machine Gun?” (2021) premiered on the Museum Of Contemporary Art Detroit 's new media platform Daily Rush and as a performance at Detroit’s art and Technology festival, Dlectricity.

Her first solo exhibition “Transcendence” was an immersive virtual-reality installation that premiered at MoCAD in 2024. Her film “the 12th House” screened globally at Monangambee and Culture Arts Society’s “Spectral Grounds” Black experimental film exhibition.

She has worked in collaboration with Esperanza Spalding for the 2020 Allied Media Conference Opening Ceremony, and was featured on Theo Parrish’s DJ-Kicks compilation “Detroit Forward” (2022).

She has performed in support of avant-garde black artists such The Sun Ra Arkestra, Rashaad Newsome, Sudan Archives, Ahya Simone, and Sterling Toles at institutions including, The Pinault Collection, The Cranbrook Art Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The University of Michigan Museum of Art, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

CV