Earth Oracle Opening - Delphine Diaw Diallo

During this residency, Delphine Diallo will present Metamorphosis, an immersive installation transforming the gallery into a living, ceremonial space of elemental remembrance. At its center stands a raw sculptural altar of stone and Bay sand — a vulva-shaped form honoring the feminine source and the Earth’s role in A.I.’s material origins. Around this centerpiece, two A.I.-generated films — one a mythic travel dreamscape, the other a meditation on elemental alchemy — are projected across dual screens. Framed photographs and miniature prints line the walls like sacred codices, each imbued with oracular presence. The exhibition invites audiences to explore transformation, memory, and the unseen architectures of becoming, bridging technology, ancestral storytelling, and the natural world.

Delphine Diallo is a Brooklyn-based artist and photographer of French and Senegalese descent, born into a creative family that nurtured her artistic talents across music, graphic design, and artistic direction. Her artistic journey took a pivotal turn when she met renowned North American photographer Peter Beard, who inspired her to delve deeper into photography and embrace her agency.Critically aware of the traditional representations of women in photography, Diallo is dedicated to deconstructing the biases and injustices embedded in its history. Since 2014, she has developed a unique visual language that empowers herself and the women she portrays, often transforming friends and family into goddesses. This homage to the “divine female body” is expressed through body paint, jewelry, and unique attire, reflecting her vision for female empowerment.Diallo emphasizes ethical practices by cultivating long-term relationships with her subjects, ensuring their representation is authentic. Her work blends spiritual symbolism and mythology, positioning black women within a revered pantheon while challenging conventional portraiture. In an evolution of her artistic practice, Diallo explores self-portraiture, transforming mental images and lucid dreams into carefully constructed scenes. Recently, she has embraced new technologies, including AI, to expand her storytelling methods, incorporating collages and montages as innovative tools alongside digital and analog photography. By juxtaposing found imagery with her own creations, she pushes the boundaries of visual representation.For Diallo, image-making serves as a sanctuary for acceptance, beauty, strength, and mystery—elements she believes are universal. Her art celebrates black women and envisions an inclusive, transnational future rooted in matriarchy. Through provocative visuals and innovative iconography, Diallo challenges viewers to engage with their politics and imaginations, inviting them to experience a reimagined narrative full of complexity and depth.