Black Cathedral (Or the Nyxontology of Other-Worlds)

Project lead, filmmaker and animator: Leslie Foster

Tintype Photography: Felicita Felli Maynard

Makeup and concept collaborator: Ruth Torres

Wardrobe: Joel Hindman

Black Cathedral is a video installation that explores Black, queer futurity through stop-motion animation created with tintype photography projected onto skin-like screens grown from bio-material. The project uses biological materials and multi-sensory space-making to create a world of dreams that embraces Indigenous cyclical time within waking life. Resembling a grotto, the installation will feature 9 video loops of Black, queer saints projected onto tall, skin-like surfaces grown from SCOBY, the bacterial mother used to ferment kombucha. Each loop will consist of a short stop-motion animation assembled from tintype photographs, created with the assistance of photographer Felicita Felli Maynard. Artist and plant chemist Maru García will assist with SCOBY sculpting.