Lessons I‒CLXXX is an ongoing, incomplete video work composed of 30-second clips—a cumulative poem whose structure evolves at random. Snapshots of disconnected experiences and subjects accumulate into a mass of fragmentary narratives, relating (directly and incidentally) to the lives of black Americans. Drawn from myriad sources—including YouTube videos, 1980s TV shows, Vines and personal footage—the Lessons form a growing corpus that Martine Syms (Los Angeles, 1988) has been making since 2014. Syms’ recently presented exhibitions include Projects 106: Martine Syms, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Fact and Trouble, ICA London; COM PORT MENT, Karma International, Los Angeles; Vertical Elevated Oblique, Bridget Donahue Gallery, New York. She currently runs Dominica Publishing, an imprint dedicated to exploring blackness in visual culture.

Contemporary Projects: Martine Syms Lessons I‒CLXXX is curated by João Ribas, Director of the Serralves Museum

Martine Syms (b. 1988, Los Angeles) uses video and performance to examine representations of blackness. Syms’ recently presented exhibitions in-clude Projects 106: Martine Syms, Museum of Modern Art; Borrowed Lady, Simon Fraser University Galleries, Vancouver; Fact and Trouble, ICA Lon-don; COM PORT MENT, Karma International, Los Angeles; Vertical Elevated Oblique, Bridget Donahue Gallery, New York. She currently runs Dominica Publishing, an imprint dedicated to exploring blackness in visual culture. She is a faculty member in the School of Art at the California Institute of the Arts.

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