In Seven Days…

Between August 2008 and January 2009, Nicola Green witnessed first-hand Barack Obama’s historic ascent to becoming the first African American President of the United States. Across six trips throughout the U.S., she gained unprecedented artistic access to the campaign trail, moving through key moments including the Democratic National Convention in Denver, election night in Grant Park, Chicago, and the inauguration in Washington, D.C. Green moved through rallies, official events, and public gatherings, taking photographs, making sketches, and engaging in conversations with citizens, campaign workers, and members of the press.

Working independently and unconstrained by journalistic commission, Green was present not as a reporter but as a witness. Her intention was to capture this moment for future generations and to understand what it might mean for them Reflecting on her experience as a mother of children of mixed heritage, Green began to consider questions of representation, inheritance, and visibility

A pivotal moment came when Green attended Obama’s speech commemorating the forty-fifth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” address, an event that situated the campaign within a much longer arc of civil rights history. Yet she also recognised that the full significance of Obama’s rise could only be understood retrospectively. The implications of this watershed moment would reveal themselves gradually, through sustained reflection on the material she had gathered and the historical distance that followed.

The resulting body of work, In Seven Days…, emerged years later as a meditation on cycles of change, collective action, and the idea that the seemingly impossible can be achieved. It captures a period defined by intense optimism and the urgent demand for racial equality at the highest level of political power. The series reflects on participation, hope, and the fragile momentum of historical transformation, while also asking what it means to witness history as it unfolds.

Described by The Metropolitan Museum of Art as “an artistic and historic masterpiece,” In Seven Days… continues to operate as a living inquiry into race, democracy, heritage, and representation. The work is held in major institutional collections including the National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), The Library of Congress (Washington D.C.), the International Slavery Museum (Liverpool), and the Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool), underscoring its enduring significance as both artwork and historical testimony.

Arkhe, In Seven Days…

Each In Seven Days… silkscreen print is complemented and underpinned by Arkhe, a seven-part multimedia archival work curated by Green, which encapsulates the breadth of her artistic and intellectual practice, lived experience, and spiritual journey.

“The Library of Congress is the sole institution to also preserve Green’s sets of development works, thoughtfully curated over ten years, called Arkhe. Each of the Arkhe collages accompanies one of the seven days and represents Green’s extensive research and creative process. As the artist explains, the title is conceptually grounded in Derrida’s deconstructive project and an interrogation of how the archive shapes knowledge and memory…

Having both the developmental works and resulting screenprints at the Library offers students, teachers, scholars, and the public invaluable opportunities to study Green’s intellectual and artistic process. While representing a richly voiced time capsule of a specific presidential campaign and related historical materials, the archival materials have been carefully selected, organized, juxtaposed, and presented in ways that are cerebral and artful. The Arkhe sets function simultaneously as source material, idea seeds, and springboards for the In Seven Days… artworks. The sets are also mosaic-like, constellatory artworks in their own right. Arkhe and In Seven Days… together raise a chorus of voices and ideas that viewers and readers can engage with, while adding their own responses and experiences” Katherine Blood, Introduction, In Seven Days, A Witness to History, an Artwork for Future Generations

In Seven Days… A Witness to History, an Artwork for Future Generations

This new book offers the first in-depth examination of the complete In Seven Days… series, much of which has remained unpublished until now. Featuring texts by leading voices in art, culture, and politics, it traces the creation of the work while considering its manifold meanings and is a meditation on the enduring legacy of that extraordinary moment for future generations.

Contributions by Katherine Blood, Ben Rhodes, Sarah Lewis, Louise Bernard, Flavia Frigeri, Suki Kim, Ekow Eshun, Aaron Rosen, Hans Ulrich obrist, Jana Degrott

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