BEHIND THE CLOUD: INTERROGATING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
BEHIND THE CLOUD: INTERROGATING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
RaFia Santana
ARTWORKS
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#PAYBLACKTIME, 2016
Ongoing, Assorted ephemera. Courtesy of the artist.
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#PAYBLACKTIME, 2016
Ongoing, Assorted ephemera. Courtesy of the artist.
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![]()
#PAYBLACKTIME, 2016
Ongoing, Assorted ephemera. Courtesy of the artist.
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![]()
#PAYBLACKTIME, 2016
Ongoing, Assorted ephemera. Courtesy of the artist.
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![]()
#PAYBLACKTIME, 2016
Ongoing, Assorted ephemera. Courtesy of the artist.
Capitalizing on white liberal guilt during the 2016 US election, RaFia Santana’s multimedia project #PAYBLACKTiME was a radical redistribution of wealth in the form of free Seamless/GrubHub meals for Black and Brown people. By appropriating crowdfunding platforms like PayPal, Santana maintained a meticulous register of donation funds received from white people. Acting as administrator, she coordinated the ordering of meals for Black people across the country. Often, she would take on the labor and care of a customer service administrator, fielding questions and requests, and communications between recipients and the platforms. Over the course of the project, Santana advertised through her personal Facebook in response to the shock white people displayed after the election of Donald Trump, answering their question: “What can we do?” Flyers, stickers, and other ephemera in this exhibition exemplify Santana’s use of graphic imagery, which appears throughout her multimedia practice, spanning photography, music, video, and more.
Eventually, #PAYBLACKTiME’s overwhelming popularity and demand became too much for one administrator. The artist divorced the project from her personal Facebook account because of the overwhelming responses she received––from both fans and critics. Santana’s actions are recognized as one of the most powerful community-building digital projects in a post-Trump America, serving as evidence of the real power and significance of reparations. The one-to-one nature of #PAYBLACKTiME questions the capacity of art itself, its interpersonal dynamics and the wider effects it can catalyze.
Artist Bio
RaFia Santana is a Brooklyn-born multidisciplinary artist using animated graphics, self-portraiture, and music performances to self-soothe, seek pleasure and crack jokes throughout their experiences with mental illness, chronic fatigue, sensory overload, and everyday racial violence. RaFia uses bright saturated colors and rhythm-centric productions to stimulate energy and attention. They use hashtags & slogans as both memorization practice and call to action. RaFia constructs looping animations that “breathe” which calms her anxiety and helps her focus. They perform their music against their animations projected onto their body and stage, using singing and rapping lyrics to bring their slogans to life.
RaFia has exhibited their work at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, MoCADA, Tate Britain, the Museum of the Moving Image, and Times Square. They have been featured in Vogue, Teen Vogue, Paper Magazine, Cultured Magazine, VICE, and other leading publications. They have performed & participated in panels, discussions, and events at Black Portraitures at Harvard University, Pratt Institute’s Department of Digital Arts, Newspace Center for Photography, Afrotectopia at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, & MoMA PS1.