Artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley works with animation, sound, text, and video game development to create virtual worlds that center Black trans life, giving agency to a group of people who have historically been excluded and forgotten. By weaving together fictional back stories with lived experience, the Berlin-based Brathwaite-Shirley creates a living archive for the Black trans community – past, present, and future. For BIM’24, the artist presents a video game-like visual novel, titled ​​NO SPACE FOR REDEMPTION? (2023). As with much of the artist’s other work, it is interactive, forcing the viewer to engage as an active participant with the art. A story unfolds about the discovery of a dead body, in part a commentary on trauma porn and so-called cancel culture. At various points throughout the story, text scrolls across the screen to ask the audience what to do next, like prompts in a video game. This interactivity is very much at the core of work which seeks to make a political statement about how Black trans people deserve recognition and remembrance. With such enthralling animation, color, and sound, it’s as if Brathwaite-Shirley is saying: There’s too much at stake to simply walk by, look briefly, and move on. You must engage with us.

NO SPACE FOR REDEMPTION? | Interactive Visual Novel by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

Kunsthalle Geneva | 2024

Team:

Artist, Vision, Coding: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

Production: Hildegard Oehler & Valerie-Malin Schmid

Camera Operator: Johannes Krell

Production Studio: sync:in Studio

Actors: Philisha Kay, Alexander Syles

Curator: Nora N. Khan