Children of NAN is an archive of objects, photos, video footage, films, sounds, philosophies, myths, rituals, and performances that I have been compiling for over two decades to document the ways black women care for themselves, each other, and the earth. NAN is the most-used syllable for mother across African dialects.
This archive is the source for ALL OF MY WORK.
Every Project Every Work starts and ends in the archive.
This project understands the ways black womxn have taught one another to care for humans and the earth - respecting and understanding the earth and astronomy in order to grow plants, craft medicines, prepare food, support healing, and connect to their ancestors and to the spiritual realm. This matriarch holds the most advanced technology.
children of NAN: beginnings
The archive began to present itself as a series of experimental videos informed by Octavia Butler, Zora Neale Hurston, La Jetee by Chris Marker, The Phoenix Papers by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, the ancient libraries of Timbouctou, Romare Bearden and my collage practice.
I set out to make a series of short films almost entirely from things I had already filmed, photographed or collected for other projects. The films were rooted in this distant post apocalyptical future where there are only two groups left on the planet: a group of black femmes called the Abassi and a group of white men led by the “scientist”. Working laterally with history these groups have been at war since the beginning of humanity.
The protagonist of the story is Aditi 34, a woman who was made in a lab by the “scientist” using kidnapped Abassi, Nan. Aditi 34 has 3 sisters, Aditi 35, 36 and 37. One by one their sisters disappear. 34 leaves the lab, goes above ground, to find them. They are led by a mysterious guide who is a portal through time she goes a discovery to find NAN.
children of NAN: Chapter 1, beginnings, 2011
6 min 18 sec
Children of NAN installation in PROOF exhibition at Studioxx, Montreal QB
More Early Experiments in the children of NAN world.
Most Recent Installments of THE children of NAN Archive
Mattress Factory Contemporary Museum, Remnants, Portals and Power: The Afterlife (2022) Alisha B Wormsley. --- Materials: salon dryer chairs, black metal pyramid, media players. ---- The videos are assemblages from past work that aims to help us remember how to be thriving, radical and BLACK.
Mattress Factory Contemporary Museum, Remnants, Portals and Power: The Afterlife (2022) Alisha B Wormsley. --- Materials: salon dryer chairs, black metal pyramid, media players. ---- The videos are assemblages from past work that aims to help us remember how to be thriving, radical and BLACK.
Mattress Factory Contemporary Museum, Remnants, Portals and Power: The Afterlife (2022) Alisha B Wormsley. --- Materials: salon dryer chairs, black metal pyramid, media players. ---- The videos are assemblages from past work that aims to help us remember how to be thriving, radical and BLACK.
Mattress Factory Contemporary Museum, Remnants, Portals and Power: The Afterlife (2022) Alisha B Wormsley. --- Materials: salon dryer chairs, black metal pyramid, media players. ---- The videos are assemblages from past work that aims to help us remember how to be thriving, radical and BLACK.
Mattress Factory Contemporary Museum, Remnants, Portals and Power: The Afterlife (2022) Alisha B Wormsley. --- Materials: salon dryer chairs, black metal pyramid, media players. ---- The videos are assemblages from past work that aims to help us remember how to be thriving, radical and BLACK.
Mattress Factory Contemporary Museum, Remnants, Portals and Power: The Afterlife (2022) Alisha B Wormsley. --- Materials: salon dryer chairs, black metal pyramid, media players. ---- The videos are assemblages from past work that aims to help us remember how to be thriving, radical and BLACK.
Mattress Factory Contemporary Museum, Remnants, Portals and Power: The Afterlife (2022) Alisha B Wormsley. --- Materials: salon dryer chairs, black metal pyramid, media players. ---- The videos are assemblages from past work that aims to help us remember how to be thriving, radical and BLACK.
Mattress Factory Contemporary Museum, Remnants, Portals and Power: The Afterlife (2022) Alisha B Wormsley. --- Materials: salon dryer chairs, black metal pyramid, media players. ---- The videos are assemblages from past work that aims to help us remember how to be thriving, radical and BLACK.
children of NAN: archive links
Art's Work in the Age of Biotechnology - https://www.artsworkintheageofbiotechnology.org/nan/
Alisha B. Wormsley [US]
Children of NAN Archive, 2020.
Archival materials.
Wormsley created the Children of NAN Archive as a “survival guide, inspired by Black women’s legacy of survival and prophecy for our future.” NAN, she explains, is the most-used syllable for “mother” across African dialects. The archive/body of work consists of photography, video footage, films, objects, philosophies, myths, rituals, and performances to understand and chronicle how Black womxn have taught one another to care for humans and the earth. In this installation, viewers access the archive through 3 objects: a vinyl record, a tapestry and a glass vessel. Inspired by Henrietta Lacks, Afrocentrist scholar Dr. Frances Cress Welsing and the ancient mystery schools of the venerated female water spirit Mami Wata, Wormsley selects examples from the archive that relate to how Black womyn are the code, the vessel, and the map.