Muse Dodd's Portfolio

Work samples

New Suns

New Suns is breathing life into a new world, while the old one is still burning. Stoking the fires with our collective memory. New suns is a study in which we explore how to hold all of the iterations of ourselves, our ancestors and descendants at the same time. This breaking of the space-time continuum opens up new portals for world building and self-discovery through embodiment. Throughout my practice I see messages from nature that teach me what it means to be sovereign and in community. How our survival depends on the survival of our community. New Suns is the unfolding of a new world from the meridian points of the old worlds, those moments that keep us stuck in a loop, to release the stagnant energy of Chattel slavery, colonialism, and the exploitation of Mother Earth.
Reprise

2019
Directed & Filmed by Muse Dodd
Wallace, Louisiana
Run (C'est si bon)

This piece was in a way a self-veneration, making myself a patron saint of escaping the binary/matrix. The allure of escape is so sweet sugarcane husks embedded into the canvas, I gift the viewer with encoded means of protection, mojo bags, spirit messages, self concealment and unveiling at just the right time. This piece is reflection and a reclaiming of self not only for me as an artist but also a statement that though liberation can be violent the rewards are sweet.
Mixed Media Collage on canvas
Acrylic, Photo paper, incense stick, Tobacco water wrapper, rose quartz crystal, sugarcane
20 x 27 x 2

Photo Courtesy of Anna Divinagracia
(Re)mnants

Logline: A young woman takes drastic measures to reclaim self and stolen heritage.
Synopsis: A young African American woman locks herself in the bathroom running from her life. She self-mutilates to connect with the spirits of her African Ancestors and ground herself in blood ritual and tradition. But without knowledge of self and her history she unwittingly calls down a spirit with which she is ill equipped to deal with.

About Muse

Muse Dodd or MUSE(O)FIRE is a Baltimore-based filmmaker, sound artist, and creative technologist with deep ancestral roots in the River Parishes of southeastern Louisiana. Their work explores how Blackness exists in the near future, borrowing from personal and collective histories, both actual and imagined. Muse holds a B.A. in Film Production from Howard University and studied at the Film Academy in Prague. They have been a recipient of several fellowships and residencies, including the… more

New Media

Interactive Projections

Created during my Hybrid Arts Lab fellowship at Theater Mitú, 2023.
Resist

Live Performance using pressure and visual sensors to trigger video
2023, Brooklyn, NY
Designed by Muse Dodd for Theater Mitú's Hybrid Arts Lab (Brooklyn)
Artist Talk
Activated Cosmogram
Afro Blue Cover

Performance

Performance works by MUSE(O)FIRE. Original soundscapes, DJ and netowrked technology.

Live at The Sultan Room

My music comes from a richly spiritual and meditative place. I channel the energy in the room as well as set intentions to hold, heal and transmute. Performed by MUSE(O)FIRE on theremin, vocals, vocal looper and original audio production at The Sultan Room for Velvet World's 1st IRL event July 10, 2025.
New Suns

New Suns is breathing life into a new world, while the old one is still burning. Stoking the fires with our collective memory. New suns is a study in which we explore how to hold all of the iterations of ourselves, our ancestors and descendants at the same time. This breaking of the space-time continuum opens up new portals for world building and self-discovery through embodiment. Throughout my practice I see messages from nature that teach me what it means to be sovereign and in community. How our survival depends on the survival of our community. New Suns is the unfolding of a new world from the meridian points of the old worlds, those moments that keep us stuck in a loop, to release the stagnant energy of Chattel slavery, colonialism, and the exploitation of Mother Earth.
MUSE(O)FIRE Live at Le Mondo

EXCERPTED FROM A LIVE PERFORMANCE ON THEREMIN, VOICE, AND SYNTHS 10/17/25
Kalunga Linimg: Portal 1

Commissioned by Creative Time for Day of Dreaming curated by Alisha B. Wormsley and Kite. Kalunga Lining: Portal I Inspired by Bakongo Kosmology, spirals in and out of time using sound as a vehicle for transformation. Acting as a conductor, artist Muse Dodd ushers listeners into the liminal space known as the Kalunga line, bolstered by the ethereal sounds of the theremin, electronic melodies and harmonies of singing bowls and voice to invite transformation. Activating the historic neighborhood of Weeksville, on the summer equinox, a day after Juneteenth. Audio sampled from Asar Imhotep from his YouTube lecture ‘Kalunga and Maat: Foundational aspects of Kimoyo Part 1
TrioDuo

2025
The Trio That Identifies as a Duo, performing live at the RedRoom for a night of Duos.
Muse - Theremin, Vocals, Percussion, fx, Electronics
Mars - Djembe, Percussion, Vocals
The Emperor King Bishop - Keys, Synths, Electronics, Vocals
Creation Myth

Filmed in Igatu, Brazil
Performance for camera
2022

(Re)mnants

Years: 2016-2018

(Re)mnants (2018) comes out of the West African principle Sankofa meaning, Go back and fetch it. It is part film, installation, and dialogue. As a descendant of those in the trans-Atlantic slave trade I felt the need to honor my ancestors who lost the ties to their culture by force but were able to create a new culture in it's wake.

(Re)mnants started with a question, ‘Where are you really from?’ Innocent enough, but for someone who is the descendant of those Africans forcibly brought over the Atlantic Ocean into a institution that not only dehumanized them; but also erased their history , it’s one that brings up feelings of loss and sadness. I wish I had a simple answer, that I could point somewhere on a map that would lead me to my ancestors, and ultimately myself but I don’t have that option. There is a quote that has been circulating recently on social media that reads ‘ To be African American is to be African without memory & American without privilege.‘ African Americans exist in a liminal space between imaginary and misunderstood. We are revered and consumed but never fully embraced, never cared for, always an outsider. We helped build this country and still we fight everyday as more and more of our rights are stripped away, our humanity stripped away. I created (Re)mnants as a way to get closer to my ancestors as well as to define myself for myself.

(Re) mnants is an interactive digital media installation, chronicling the journey into my ancestral and spiritual heritage.(Re) mnants is a conscious act of (Re) membering, (Re) imagining, and (Re) vering those who have come before us and still walk among us. Asking the questions “how do you remember, and what do you choose to forget?” I pull from African American quilt making traditions to use scraps of knowledge and traces of remembrance to fashion a clearer picture of her familial past/legacy. After tracing my lineage through a popular DNA testing site, I was faced with the reality that ancestry is more than percentages, and that although much of my ancestor’s stories were engulfed by the tumultuous tides of the Transatlantic slave trade, their memories live within me.

(Re) mnants is as much a film as it is a ritual. It is an ongoing preformative ritual of communing with ancestors, whose names she doesn’t know, yet whose spirits hold an everlasting influence on her life and artistic process. Utilizing video, soundscape, and projection mapping, I refashion my family history to create a portal for participants to cross the boundary between the imagined and the biographical, the physical and the spiritual, the living and the ancestors. (Re)mnants is a memorial and a rebirth and a reminder that although we hold all of our ancestors trauma, we also hold their resilience, joy and dreams.

(Re)mnants

Logline: A young woman takes drastic measures to reclaim self and stolen heritage.
Synopsis: A young African American woman locks herself in the bathroom running from her life. She self-mutilates to connect with the spirits of her African Ancestors and ground herself in blood ritual and tradition. But without knowledge of self and her history she unwittingly calls down a spirit with which she is ill equipped to deal with.
Install shot (Re)mnants 2018

In a created living room the artist brings their ancestors in conversation with each other. Featuring family heirlooms Muse creates a fictionalized version of what their space may have looked like in the late '60s.
Install shot (Re)mnants

Screening room for (Re)mnants the film.
(Re)mnants install image

The tapestry on wall features the names of the artist's deceaed family members. Printed by Cayla Lockwood.

Collage (Digital & Physical)

Photo and Multimedia collage

Run (C'est si bon)

This piece was in a way a self-veneration, making myself a patron saint of escaping the binary/matrix. The allure of escape is so sweet sugarcane husks embedded into the canvas, I gift the viewer with encoded means of protection, mojo bags, spirit messages, self concealment and unveiling at just the right time. This piece is reflection and a reclaiming of self not only for me as an artist but also a statement that though liberation can be violent the rewards are sweet.
Mixed Media Collage on canvas
Acrylic, Photo paper, incense stick, Tobacco water wrapper, rose quartz crystal, sugarcane
20 x 27 x 2

Photo Courtesy of Anna Divinagracia
Let the light in

Title: Let the light in
Dimensions: 16 x 20
Year of Creation: 2026
Medium: Inkjet print on canvas, and metal foil
Price: $125

‘Let the light in’ is a tender moment between friends, the care that is often reserved for lovers can be a sweet balm between friends.

Available for Purchase

email [email protected]
Wherever you are

2019
Digital Collage
Photo by Muse Dodd
Model Nana Chinara
Charlie Tosa
Washed Away

2019
Model: KT Kennedy
Can't keep my hands off of you

2021
Digital collage, Silkscreen print 20 x 27
As Above, So Below

Reflection of the balance and duality of life.

Phot by Muse Dodd
Model: Nana Chinara

Film

Black Gold

Commisioned for Tariq Al-Sabir's show #Unwanted at The Shed 2019
Director: Monique Muse Dodd
Director of Photography: Kalyn Jacobs
Assistant Director: Giselle Lawrence
Gaffer: Grace Naw
Grip: Morgan Johnson
Set Design: Rachel A. Osorio
Projections: Jon Sims
Set Photographer: Cherry Brice Jr
Production Assistants:
Egypt Robertson
Charlei Tosa
Brittney Robinson
Tinora Locke
Khalill Joseph
Marianne Bellorin
Cast
BabyCakes
Andre Villabrera
Lionel Laurent
Lynna Davis
Ziiomi Law
Tia Birdsong
Brandon Gray
Charly Nicole
KT Kennedy
Simmi
Deo C.
Amir Badawi

Special Thanks:
Flux Factory
Danny Crump
Cayla Lockwood
Sarah Dahlinger

Created for Tariq Al-Sabir's #UNWANTED
a place to call home

'a place to call home” is a reflection on what it means to find refuge as a nomadic Black trans person in the States. What community looks like in action and the lasting legacy of the Transatlantic slave trade on our natural world . “ a place to call home” is a combination of ancestral rememberings and future musings exploring visual liberation through Black ecstatic storytelling and multimedia collage.
Reprise

2019
Directed & Filmed by Muse Dodd
Wallace, Louisiana
Origins of Blackness

2018
Writen, Directed, Filmed & Edited by Muse Dodd
With my Eyes

Year: 2018
Location: New Orleans, LA

Music by Tariq Al- Sabir
Dancer Chanté Michele
Directed, Shot & Edited by Monique Muse Dodd