OriginsPhoto by Tiffany Thomas
Alivia Blade
aka araminta, the dreamer
— Lineage —
My making, my living, is in conversation with the multitude of witnesses who have come before me.
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Harriet Tubman is the peak of my North Star constellation
I am of my grandmothers and beloved ancestors—Sarah, Zada, Mamie, Mary, Maude, Mollie, Silvey, Sarah Jane, Phyllis, Sally…and many more.
I lean on and am inspired by the words, life, and works of bell hooks and contemporary dream-bearers such as Tricia Hersey (of The Nap Ministry).
— Bio —
Alivia Blade is a visual artist dreaming of liberated futures. She traverses between non-traditional sculpture, collage, and creative writing, centering the histories of black women and femmes. Harriet Tubman and her grandmothers form the North Star of her practice, which she recently honored in SANCTUARIA, an immersive art installation for communal daydreaming, featuring paper mache shrines and altar tools. Alivia has exhibited work at houseguest gallery, the University of Louisville Schneider Hall Gallery, and Snide Hotel Gallery.
She received a BA in Graphic Design from Columbia College Chicago in 2017. She is from Louisville, KY, and presently resides there.
— Artist Statment —
“Who makes up your cloud of witnesses?”, a friend gently probed,—those you can lean on in joy and struggle. I studied Harriet and sat with images of my grandmothers, their spirits sparking an intuitive curiosity. Their stories offered me solace and a roadmap for surviving the systems of oppression we’re still presently experiencing. I began to embody my ancestors through an alias: ‘araminta, the dreamer’—a figure guiding wanderers through rituals of remembrance and dreaming of liberated realities. ‘Araminta’ is the name Harriet Tubman bore while enslaved. I resonate with being in an in-between place—plotting for freedom beyond my imagination.
In Fall 2024, my capacity to engage with my collage practice was limited by health challenges. I desired an alternative, tactile experience—drawn to the limitless bounds and child-like play of paper mache, centering the ancestral kinship I was fostering. This journey shaped SANCTUARIA: an immersive art installation for communal daydreaming, the budding foundations of my artistic social practice. I care to cultivate spaces for black and marginalized groups to experience “art embodied,” a practice that centers the reciprocal relationship between art and community, creating a conduit to dreaming of the worlds we hope to see.