Bio

Danae Antoine is an interdisciplinary artist located in Atlanta, Georgia. She is currently pursuing a BFA at Georgia State University.

Website: https://www.danaeantoine.com/work

Instagram: @artfully_antoine

Frolic, A Fleeting Moment - Artist Statement

When I first came down to Georgia, I had a fear of the south, of its rampant racism, and backwardness. I had in my mind an idea, and a notion of what it meant to be Southern, and what it meant to be black in the bible belt. Before coming here I never understood what it really meant to be a black Southerner, as a Caribbean and Californian- I asked why black people decided to remain in the South. I naturally gravitated to Atlanta when I resided in its outskirts because I needed a change of pace. I then understood the power of being a black person in the South. I saw firsthand how Atlanta had become a mecca of blackness that is a free and wild being that manifests itself in a litany of ways. After indulging in this new vision of blackness, I saw that in order to push the narrative and depiction of blackness we needed nuance and we needed joy. Frolic, A Fleeting Moment, engages with the underrepresentation of having a safe space for black people who had been bombarded with painful imagery from the black lives matter protests, and a fleeting recompense from years of constant trauma. To me, Atlanta represents freedom. It represents the ability to be black in ways we have never thought before, it allows me to be black and grow, and change and thrive. It represents loving your black self enough to know when you deserve a reprieve.