Once Again . . . (Statues Never Die) (2022), a mesmerising five- channel black-and-white video installation exploring the legacies of the philosopher, critic and queer cultural leader Alain Locke and African art collector Albert Barnes, whose collection inspired both Locke and the Harlem Renaissance artists. Julien reimagines Locke’s relationship and correspondence with Barnes, in which they traded points of view on the shifting categorisation, dismissal and acceptance of Black artists and artworks within art history. Intercut with archival footage of looted African artworks held by the British Museum and augmented with quotes from poets Aimé Césaire and Langston Hughes, the film offers a history that contextualises contemporary efforts for reparations, gesturing at critical dialogues from which new cultural movements can arise. Drawing its title from Chris Marker and Alain Resnais’ film Statues Also Die (1954) on historical African Art and its decline under colonialism, the video installation is accompanied by a series of sculptures from different eras: traditional African wooden masks sit next to the bronze figure of Harlem Renaissance artist Richmond Barthé’s Stevedore (1937), while Detroit-born artist Matthew Angelo Harrison’s sculptures composed of various African ceremonial figures in resin exemplify contemporary influences of Black modernism, the continuity of the role of statues in Black art, and the legacy of Locke and Barnes.
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