Decipher

2024 | Sunbelt Gallery, San Francisco
Solo Exhibition

Decipher was a solo exhibition by Afatasi at Sunbelt Gallery exploring visual language, symbolism, cultural memory, and the continued lifecycle of Modalities & Motifs, her 500-foot public artwork previously installed along Evans Avenue in Bayview–Hunters Point.

The exhibition was conceived as the next material life of Modalities & Motifs. Afatasi had designed the original banner knowing that its life would extend beyond the temporary public installation. For Decipher, she cut selected sections directly from the banner and reconfigured them throughout the gallery, isolating imagery that had previously existed within the continuous 500-foot composition. Enlarged ornamental frames transformed these sections into individual gallery works, allowing familiar figures, motifs, and excerpts from The Afro Block Party to be encountered in a new scale and context.

The title Decipher speaks to the act of looking more closely at the visual language embedded throughout the work. Images drawn from art history, popular culture, San Francisco life, and Afatasi’s own symbolic vocabulary operate alongside motifs carrying histories of migration, ancestry, resistance, remembrance, and freedom. Removed from the continuous public installation, these elements invited visitors to consider the individual references and meanings contained within the larger composition.

The exhibition extended beyond the installation through artist-led Art & Wine Tours, gallery events, community gatherings, and educational programming, creating opportunities for visitors to experience the work through conversation and interpretation. Sunbelt Gallery also offered workshops, school field trips, team-building experiences, and other arts-centered programming during this period. 

Sunbelt gallery brochure.pdf

Through Decipher, the physical material of Modalities & Mototifs moved deliberately from public space into the gallery. Rather than marking the conclusion of a temporary artwork, its deinstallation became part of a planned lifecycle—allowing the work to be cut apart, recontextualized, and experienced again through an entirely different form.

Artist: Afatasi
Exhibition: Decipher
Venue: Sunbelt Gallery, San Francisco
Year: 2024
Exhibition Type: Solo Exhibition
Related Work: Modalities & Motifs (2023)
Programming: Artist-led tours, gallery events, community gatherings, and educational programming