Steffani Jemison

On 12 February 1831, Nat Turner, a man enslaved on a plantation in Southampton, Virginia, witnessed an eclipse, seeing in it the hand of a black man covering the sun. He interpreted this as a sign, heralding an uprising that he would come to lead. In November of the same year, he was arrested along with the other rebels and sentenced to death. 

clear skies/troubled water examines the stirrings of revolt and vicissitudes of suppression - from the uprisings in 1831 to the riots that arose in the cities of Boston, Detroit, Cincinnati and Newark in the summer of 1967 - through the prism of natural phenomena (eclipses, wind patterns, variations in light and gravity). 

The movement toward emancipation appears here not as a linear path, but rather as an uncertain journey, comprising setbacks and revivals. The artist Steffani Jemison explores flight as a creative and political gesture: a way of plotting alternative coordinates, improvising new forms of presence, and marking out futures that the body can bear. 

Here, "atmosphere" goes beyond a simple question of climate. It acts as a sensitive power, charged with memory and invisible tensions. It conceals structures that influence our trajectories and limit our path. Like the verse of a ruttier - poems that sailors learned by heart to navigate no matter the weather the exhibition invites us to pay attention to imperceptible currents. 

Curator: Caroline Honorien

With Konbini

Cover image: View of the exhibition clear skies / troubled water, Steffani Jemison at Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, 22 October 2025–8 February 2026. Courtesy of the artist and Madragoa (Lisbon), Annet Gelink (Amsterdam) and Greene Naftali (New York). Photo: Aurélien Mole, Lafayette Anticipations

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The Galeries Lafayette group was the official partner of the Emergence sector until 2024, for which Lafayette Anticipations awarded a prize to an artist in the sector each year. Chosen by an international jury, the laureate artist produces a work presented at the Fondation the following year. Steffani Jemison is the 2024 laureate.

The works Bridge and Untitled (Projection) have benefited from the support of Creative Capital Foundation. Additional production support and residency for Bridge provided by EMPAC / Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.