Protodispatch, 2023. A conversation between Laura Raicovich and the organizers of Loophole of Retreat, Simone Leigh and Rashida Bumbray on the physical, social, and cultural construction of the event. Accompanying pictures to the article feature O’GRady’s talk with Leigh, a highlight of the symposium.
Journal of Architectural Education, 2023. A conversation between V. Mitch Ewn and Tina Campt begins with a statement proposed by O’Grady at the close of Loophole of Retreat: Venice, a symposium of Black women writers, artists, and thinkers. In what Ewn and Campt regard as a call to action, O’Grady asks, “‘We can’t guilt trip forever, that won’t work. So the question is, how imaginative are we going to be?’” The question frames the cruciality of going beyond white audiences and spectators to speak to other Black women.
Siddhartha Mitter interviews Simone Leigh on Sovereignty, her installation for the U.S. Pavillion at the Venice Biennale. Leigh’s mentor, O’Grady, expresses enthusiasm for the symposium Loophole of Retreat that will accompany the show in October 2022.
Rizvana Bradley responds to Seph Rodney’s essay published in Hyperallergic, “Discovering How Black Women Might Forge a Path to Freedom.” In recounting the “Loophole of Retreat” conference – organized by Simone Leigh at the Venice Biennale in 2022 – Bradley offers a sound critique of Rodney’s writing on the conference, which reconsiders in/accessibility in artistic discourse.
Seph Rodney recounts his experience at Simone Leigh’s symposium held in conjunction with the artist’s presentation of Leigh’s work at the US Pavilion for the Venice Biennale. The symposium “Loophole of Retreat” brought together artists and theorists alike to consider political liberation and sovereignty for Black women. He writes about Lorraine O’Grady’s conversation with Leigh, one that concerned the Decolonize Museums protests that happened outside of her retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum in 2021. She began to question just what the privilege of a solo institutional show provided her, and how she could make new allyships with those afforded less power than her, notably trans activists.