Heaven / Mezzanine
As one ascends to the mezzanine, the space narrows but the sense of aura expands. We are no longer standing in the filth of a cemetery; we have entered another dimension, one in which those who passed away gloriously on Earth are to be sanctified. Five large paintings form the centre of this level, but only one is visible at a time. The others remain hidden, rotated throughout the duration of the show. The space between one painting and the next becomes a temporal one. Each painting is a portrait: Sojourner Truth, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Each of these figures has inhabited the threshold between resistance and articulation, shaping the artist’s persona entirely. During their lives, they changed the rules through their words, often accepting a level of risk that might have caused others to stumble or retreat rather than move forward. The mezzanine becomes, in this sense, a provisional heaven in which salvation is reached by embracing an uncompromising view of the world.

Purgatory / Basement
As one descends into the lower ground of the gallery, the light turns electric blue and the sound, subtle at first, begins to throb. The basement casts visitors into a purgatorial space. The central work is the video installation Sojourner (2025), presented as a projection accompanied by a modulated narration. It follows the journey of the main character through a dark heaven where memory replaces chronology and meaning is drawn from fragments of other individuals’ identities. The traveller, suspended in a loop, begins to understand himself by piecing together the stories of others. The landscape oscillates between the real and the simulated, with sequences that resemble drone footage and others that dissolve into static. These moments are neither linear nor stable. The voice of the moon, performed by British artist Richie Culver, offers a calm form of guidance. In contrast, another voice disrupts the rhythm. Sharp, broken and raw, this second voice, performed by Blackhaine, introduces a fractured emotional tone that evokes resistance, doubt and despair. The video offered the occasion to foster another collaboration with Space Afrika, that took charge of the sound design with their distinctive urban dubscapes. On July 30th, five days after the Antwerp opening, Sojourner (2025) was also projected at Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin, where it was shown as a one-night-only event supported by 032c. Such events also represented a moment of junction, a moment of passion of the baton between a previous exhibition titled Some things make us laugh, some things make us cry at 032c Gallery in Berlin and this latest show in Antwerp.

Allen-Golder Carpenter does not portray purgatory as a place of punishment. Instead, they depict it as a space for reckoning. The objects placed throughout the room reinforce this sense of liminality. A black canvas bearing the Maybach logo (Maybach Study, 2025) gestures toward fantasies of wealth and power further referencing the projection, as the luxury vehicle itself appears in the film, candid and spectral, accompanied by dark angels. Nearby, a set of urinals filled with ash evokes the memory of court-mandated drug tests experienced by members of the artist’s family. This becomes a kind of passage into adulthood that many in their community were forced to endure. On a column beside the blue seats (Witness, 2025), which face the projection, an English grammar dictionary titled The King’s English has been nailed in place using rusted spikes. This gesture references the traditional African Nkondi figure, a ritual object through which legal disputes are settled and the security of the community is protected. Titled I Don’t Correct Other People’s Grammar (2025), the work points to the devaluation of dialects in contemporary society since these forms of speech are often dismissed as inferior. Here, they are reclaimed as a form of resistance against the dominant language imposed through systems of power.

In another part of the space, which is narrower and more constricted but fully bathed in blue light, a wall projection shows a sequence of Instagram excerpts. These document a tribute to NBA player Ja Morant (Free Jah Morant, 2025), who was widely criticised after flashing a gun during two livestreams. The work critiques not only the media controversy but also the broader structures that impose specific behaviours on Black communities. This video passes through one of an urinal cup identical to the ones seen earlier, now enriched with a reflective cluster of gemstones. These elements allude to the aspirational aesthetics that often shape how identity is performed by the demographic to which Carpenter belongs to and give voice to through their practice.