Sensus Plenior (Latin for “fuller meaning”) follows Reverend Susan Webb, leader of the Master Mime Ministry of Harlem, New York. Stemming from the genealogies of French mime artist Marcel Marceau and West African dance, gospel mime interprets songs through gesture. Jemison’s film explores this tradition as a continuation of her research into language and storytelling traditions. With no dialogue, the work “speaks" about language, gesture, identity, and the limits of identification. Jemison’s minimal editing harks back to early silent films while also leaving respectful space for Webb to perform. 

Jemison, born in California, received her Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Afterwards she studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2013 she received the prestigious Tiffany Foundation Biennial prize and the following year an Art Matters prize. She also won the Radcliffe Fellowship prize from Harvard University in 2017. From her home in Brooklyn, New York, Steffani Jemison works on publications and new works. In addition to videos, drawings, installations, and objects she also produces performances such as Promise Machine (2015) with which she exhibited at MoMA, New York.

As part of ‘We Love You’, a multidisciplinary programme on love beyond the romantic and the self - sep oct nov dec 2019.