STATEMENTS
2022
Ayana Zaire Cotton (she/they) is an anti-disciplinary artist and cultural worker from Prince George’s County, Maryland. They are currently based in Dawn, Virginia — tucked in between the ancestral lands of the Mattaponi and Youghtanund — answering the call to steward land that has been in their family for four generations. Braiding code, performance, and abstraction Ayana speculates and worldbuilds alongside science and technology. Sankofa is a word and symbol of the Akan Twi and Fante languages of Ghana which translates to, "go back and get". Centering a sankofa sensibility, they build databases as vessels holding seed data and experiment with shuffling algorithms to spin non-linear narratives. Ayana calls this methodology “Cykofa Narration”, generating new worlds using the digital and social detritus of our existing world — resulting in a storytelling aesthetic that embodies circular time and troubles human authorship. Through engaging with language, technology, and ecology, Ayana is cultivating a practice of remembering and imagining alternative modes of being and interspecies belonging.
EDUCATION
2021
School for Poetic Computation, Reading, Writing, and Compiling New York, NY |
Forested, Permaculture Design Certification
Bowie, MD
2018
2012 — 2015
University of Maryland, Innovation, Design and Society Major (BA)
College Park, MD
College Park, MD
2011 — 2012
LIM College, Business Management Major
New York, NY
New York, NY
SELECTED PROJECTS
2022
2021
2016 — 2017
Zaire Studio, Your Satisfaction Is Our Future Book
Zaire Studio, Your Satisfaction Is Our Future Collection
Zaire Studio, Your Satisfaction Is Our Future Collection
2016
DISTRIKT Magazine, Art x Politics Issue
WRITING
2022
Seeda School Newsletter
Substack
The Stories We Tell: Blackness As Biotechnology, Collective Imagination, and Study
Ginkgo Bioworks Blog
Substack
The Stories We Tell: Blackness As Biotechnology, Collective Imagination, and Study
Ginkgo Bioworks Blog
EXHIBITIONS
2022
Kickin’ The Can, Group Exhibition
curated by Anisa Olufemi and R. Treshawn Williamson
ACRE Projects @ Drama Club
Chicago , IL
curated by Anisa Olufemi and R. Treshawn Williamson
ACRE Projects @ Drama Club
Chicago , IL
2022
Rituals Here, Group Exhibition
visioned by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
Site Specific Activations in
Richmond, VA
visioned by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
Site Specific Activations in
Richmond, VA
2018
We Got Next: Young Contemporaries, Group Exhbition Curated by Deirdre Darden
CAH Gallery
Washington, D.C.
CAH Gallery
Washington, D.C.
2016
RESIDENCIES AND FELLOWSHIPS
2022
Annual Artist Residency
Visual Arts Center of Richmond
Richmond, VA
Wherewithal Project Grant
Washington Project for the Arts and Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts
Washington, D.C.
Visual Arts Center of Richmond
Richmond, VA
Wherewithal Project Grant
Washington Project for the Arts and Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts
Washington, D.C.
2021
Ginkgo Creative Residency
Ginkgo Bioworks and Faber Futures
Boston, MA
Make Work Residency
Studio Two Three
Richmond, VA
Summer ‘21 Cohort
Recurse Center
New York, NY
Seed Summer Residency
Exodus School of Expression
Richmond, VA
Ginkgo Bioworks and Faber Futures
Boston, MA
Make Work Residency
Studio Two Three
Richmond, VA
Summer ‘21 Cohort
Recurse Center
New York, NY
Seed Summer Residency
Exodus School of Expression
Richmond, VA
2020
Wherewithal Research Grant
Washington Project for the Arts and Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts
Washington, D.C.
Xenogenesis Salons
Institute for Contemporary Art
Richmond, VA
E:17 Zines
Transformer
Washington, D.C.
Washington Project for the Arts and Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts
Washington, D.C.
Xenogenesis Salons
Institute for Contemporary Art
Richmond, VA
E:17 Zines
Transformer
Washington, D.C.
2016
SPEAKING
2015
Transcending Limitations, TEDxUMD
SELECTED MEDIA AND PRESS
2020
E17: Ayana Zaire Cotton and Jennifer Lillis, Paper Cuts Podcast, with hosts Christopher Kardambikis and Adriana Monsalve
2018
2017
Free Style — The Best Looks at Afropunk Marched to Their Own Beat (featuring the Zaire Studio jumpsuit worn and customized by Anthony Prince), Vogue, By Rachel Hahn, Video by Mika Altskan and Matvey Fiks
EXTENDED CV BY REQUEST
LAST UPDATED OCT 2022
Cykofa Artifacts: Ceramics
2020An ongoing series of ceramic Cykofian artifacts. These carved clay vessels started as embodied research project exploring clay as a medium for Black rage, eroticism, and memory. The series has evolved into a sculptural worldbuilding practice, excavating artifacts from the speculative site of Cykofa.