09/03/2026
Explore "John Akomfrah: The Hour Of The Dog," now in its final weeks at the Menil Collection.
The six-channel video and sound installation explores the history of youth-led Civil Rights-era activism in the American South from 1954 to 1963. To create the immersive work, the Ghanaian-born British artist combined black-and-white documentation of pivotal historical moments with quiet and surreal cinematic shots recorded on a stage set. For the artist, the montage technique is both a method and a philosophy as the juxtaposition of disparate fragments provides new ways of seeing.
"I'm interested in the afterlives of activism—the way resistance lingers in the body, in the landscape, in the archive. Activism is not confined to what happens in the streets; it's bound up with who and how we remember, who and how we mourn, and how we dream forward. The dreams and despairs of 1960s activists still pulse through our contemporary condition, waiting for new forms, new utterances."
