Liz Johnson Artur Creates Black Visual Community with "Dusha"

"I think there's a part in you, when you never had things, that you don't want to show that you need," says Russian Ghanaian artist and photographer Liz Johnson Artur, who spoke with WNYC's cultural critic Rebecca Carroll about her first solo exhibition,"Dusha." The show, which opened at the Brooklyn Museum last week, features a wide array of images — black-and-white video, sound installation, photographs, sketches and portraits — all focusing on people and scenes from within the African diaspora. Johnson Artur, whose mother is Russian and father is Ghanaian, spent her youth in Germany. When she visited Brooklyn, at the age of 18, it was the first time she had been surrounded by black people. It inspired her career. 

"I grew up with a Russian mom. We ate Russian food. We spoke Russian at home," she said. So it was a revelation "to discover that I could actually reach black people, hang out with them, and that the camera could actually be a way to communicate with people." The name of the exhibition, Dusha, is a Russian word that means "soul." Johnson Artur chose it because it's the one word "that exists in every language." 

A central focus of the exhibition is Johnson Artur's Black Balloon Archive, which takes its name from a song on Syl Johnson's 1969 album Is it Because I'm Black and captures images from everyday black life across several different continents. Another standout is a selection of portraits of Ghanaian photographer James Barnor, accompanied by an interview conducted by Johnson Artur, in which he tells the story of his long and now legendary career.    

"Dusha" is at the Brooklyn Museum through August 18.