Two shows at G Fine Art in Washington, DC suggest that Black faces can’t be taken at face value. Iona rozeal brown marked out a territory of iconography after a 2001 trip to Japan where she was inspired by the ganguros—Japanese youth who curly permed their hair, darkened their skin, and dressed in the latest hip-hop fashions. In brown’s now-famous blackface images, geisha-styled b-girls wear cornrows and door-knocker earrings; b-boys and sumos morph into a new kind of phat. In the current series, Brown paints directly on wood, harkening perhaps to the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints that she freely samples. (Brown is also a DJ.) The result is more earthy, more folksy, than her work on paper. If you haven’t seen brown’s dexterous blending of Afro and Asian identities, don’t miss this chance to glimpse these wood works.
Across the gallery is Jefferson Pinder’s Juke--a multi-unit video piece where each of 10 monitors is a headshot of a Black person lip-synching. The voice coming out of the attached headphones is so dissimilar from the voice one would imagine the lip-syncher to possess. White-sounding punk rants and country twangs emanate from Black (read: urban music) mouths. Pinder’s Juke is another kind of racial incongruity: at first sight, we think we know who these Black subjects are, only to see them recast through their performance of so-called white people’s music. Both brown and Pinder ask: what’s ours, what’s theirs, and, most provocatively, what’s shared? Brown and Pinder's works are currently on display until January 6, 2007.
In an interview with Spike Lee, Melvin Van Peebles likened Lee to Roger Bannister--the man credited with running the first four-minute mile. The point of this comparison was that after each man’s respective innovative endeavors, their once unique pursuits, in turn, became the standard.
That being said, and on the heels of the November 25 shooting death of Sean Bell, an unarmed New York native who was fired upon fifty times by New York City police and the similar case of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston in Atlanta, Georgia later that week, Lee is set to lend his directing talents to the Universal Pictures backed LA Riots. Based on the 1992 riots incited by the acquittal of four police officers accused of using excessive force towards Rodney King, LA Riots will be produced by Brian Grazer of Inside Man and written by John Ridley (two words: Esquire Magazine).
LA Riots will begin shooting next year.
What is your greatest fear? For some, it's heights, for others closed-in spaces, and still others dread something far more paranormal: aliens. Whether you believe in them or not, for most individuals, "aliens" elicit visions and dreams (or nightmares) of flying saucers, unidentifiable, unknown beings and colorful depictions of misunderstood life invading our own. Alien Nation, an ambitious, and provocative exhibition, on display at The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) until January 14, 2007, explores this real and metaphorical fear of invasion in conjunction with the multifaceted relationship between science fiction, race, and contemporary art.
Curated by John Gill, Jens Hoffmann and Gilane Tawadros and co-produced The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and The Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) , this exhibit features twelve international contemporary artists including Laylah Ali, Ellen Gallagher, David Huffman, Kori Newkirk and Yinka Shonibare, among others. Their pointed use of images and the language of science fiction explain the themes of "otherness," "difference," and "migration," echoing contemporary and historical accounts of racism, terrorism, and integration that are often the products of social fears of cultural difference. As visually engaged onlookers view this multimedia display, which encompasses film, photography, sculpture, and 3D paintings, these visual and aural pieces communicate the parallels between science fiction and real world, human interaction.
Leave it to the playwright with some of the most rousing titles--Fucking A, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and Imperceptible Mutabilities-- to redefine American theater. The writer in this instance is playwright, screenwriter, and novelist Suzan-Lori Parks. What began November 13, 2006 (and will conclude a year later on November 12th) was initially an experiment to write one play each day for a year, and has now developed into the largest theater collaboration in US History.
365 Days/365 Plays is a cooperative project with over 600 theaters in New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and college campuses nationwide participating in simultaneous productions throughout the year. Each play is relatively short, ranging from a few lines to a few pages; however, when viewed in a sequence one will see the range of ideas that are being addressed. Also included in the live performances is an internet component streaming live from select theaters.
365 Days/365 Plays will be in production until November 12, 2007. From December 21 through 24, the plays will be shown in Austin at the Zachary Scott Theater and in Seattle at Capitol Hill Arts Center.
"We're live from the Nuyorican Poets Café" are the famous words of Puerto Rican poet, educator, writer, and co-founder Miguel Algarín. Credited for offering a creative platform for artists traditionally underrepresented, The Nuyorican will host an interdisciplinary public program featuring the literary and political trailblazer tonight.
In the tradition of El Museo del Barrio’s Between the Lines exhibition featuring the poetry and memorabilia of Reverend Pedro Pietri and Aaron Davis Hall’s own performance-based tribute to Algarín titled A Mongo Affair, Conversations at the Nuyorican Poets Café continues the NYC institution's longstanding practice of literary and music events that push the envelope. Tonight's event inaugurates a news series hosted by A-Trayn and produced by Mahogany Browne. Organizers tell us to think Inside the Actors Studio in a mashup with the poetry world.
Conversations at the Nuyorican Poets Café will take place Tuesday, December 19.
We're seeing a tidal wave of new stories coming into the West out of Africa, of both the visual and literary varieties. Namely, we note that a number of efforts are aimed at countering the stereotypes of constant war, poverty, and famine on the Continent. First we saw Charlayne Hunter Gault's new book, then we caught up with Ozii Obiyo's student TV show in Austin, not to mention the bevy of large survey shows designed to re-situate Africa for the 21st century.
Add to this effort the work of Emily Verellen, whose recent coffee table book Lighbox features the autobiographies, essays, interview responses, and photography of several 13- to 18-year-old girls living in the Kibera slum region of Nairobi. Emily told us that although focused on the poverty-stricken region, the book is not designed simply to document misery. Rather it is, in her words, "about the hope, strength, and resilience inside the young women." This alternative view, Ellen notes, is critical. "Or else, why have hope?" she says.
The book is a project of the Binti Pamoja Center, which among other activities, provides scholarships to send young women to school as a way out of poverty. In fact, the zero-overhead enterprise means that 100% of the book sales support the scholarship program directly.
Emily told us that sales from a mere 3 copies of the book are enough to send a girl to school. Her goal: 3,000 copies sold. We think she's dropping the Christmas hint and note that we'd rather see people send a Kibera girl to school than shell out dough on whatever X-, Y-, or Z-box kids are currently killing each other over. Word.
Imagine a magazine that is not really in an organized format, a publication that is never completely new or old, something that is printed on-the-fly, organized by the reader, un-ending, yet always just in time. This new magazine, which is as eclectic as an artist's mind, is LAB MAG, a PDF publication that collects the work of artists, designers, and writers.
The publication is a project of LAB, which is founded by artist Adam Pendleton who serves as co-editor along with Bartholomew Ryan. The designers are David Reinfurt and Sarah Gephart of O-R-G. LAB MAG focuses on documentation, art, design, and research. The large variety of contributions include an essay on appropriative politics from Seth Price; a new work by Renée Green and Johannes Wohnseifer; work from architect-artist Pedro Reyes and N55; along with a LAB-inspired play on an old work from Pierre Bismuth.
The new mag was launched at a public event at Eyebeam in New York City earlier this week, and it included a series of panel-style presentations by artists including Vito Acconci of Acconci Studio, experimental-poet Jena Osman, painter Adam Pendleton, and designers David Reinfurt and Sarah Gephart.
We've noted two releases in the graphic novel arena in the past two weeks, though we're noting them for different reasons.
First is Malcolm X, A Graphic Biography, by Andrew Helfer and Randy DuBurke. Helfer, the brains behind DC Comics' Paradox Press imprint, which marketed graphic novels in odd sizes, (e.g., The Big Book of Urban Legends and the now seminal A History of Violence, first prints), has moved to a new company, Hill and Wang. However, at 102 pages of not-thoroughly-researched information and fairly descriptive illustrations, you have to ask, "Why is this book being published?" There's definitely better graphic work done on Malcolm X, (Malcolm X for Beginners, if you don't believe me.) There's an imprint on the back left corner of the book that says "serious comics." If that's true they should treat their subject matter a little more seriously. We're hoping their next publication, Ronald Reagan, a Graphic Biography will be better.
But as an avenging black angel, swooping into the graphic novel miasma to retrieve a slice of redemption, long time rebel outsider Lance Tooks finishes his Lucifer's Garden of Verses with a fourth volume titled Between the Devil and Miles Davis. Cheaper than the previous book, it feels like you're holding some serious value as you read this meditation on black celebrity and mystic frustration. Those looking for more critical information on Miles Davis will be sorely disappointed, but if you've ever been captivated by the stark skins and sharp edges of Lance Tooks' work, you'll be happy with the series swan song. Even the uninitiated will take delight in a main character that is often fitted with a t-shirt that has "Halliburton Plantation" printed over an outline of the United States. This is the man to watch as he's been in the graphic novel business for a while and still managed to preserve an authentic style unfettered by the whims of the comic book kids.
The good die young, but the great are celebrated long after they are gone from this world. In that vein, the Puerto Rico Art Museum and ArtPremium Magazine recently launched Basquiat: An Anthology for Puerto Rico, a retrospective on the life of Jean-Michel Basquiat. This exhibition, the first of his work in Puerto Rico, is a homecoming of sorts. Born of Puerto Rican and Haitian heritage, this cultural mélange helped catalyze, embolden, and infuse Jean-Michel's work with a duality and schizophrenia that could best be described as Americanism.
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was the embodiment of what some would call the hip-hop culture ethos. He went from "ashy to classy"; from aerosol painting on walls to having his painting Charles the First prominently displayed in the collection of one Shawn "Jay Z" Carter. Basquiat, the sometime musician, brought the streets into the fine arts arena via his cut-and-paste aesthetic and exaltation of graffiti. Wood, paper, canvas, paint, marker, and oil stick fluidly facilitated the madness that Basquiat poured into his art. His brain was a visual sampler, and his work a cultural, anthropological mixtape. Both he and his work are representations of the dynamic, genre-defying, youth culture that we now live with.
As the child of the creative freedom forged by the Afri-COBRA and Black Abstraction movements, Basquiat delivered a body of work that was refreshing, intelligent, and challenging--both stylistically, and thematically. He changed the game, and some of us are surely playing because of him.
Although he departed too soon, he left behind an artistic legacy that is represented, in part, by the 150 plus works on display at the Puerto Rico Art Museum.
Basquiat: An Anthology for Puerto Rico will be on display at the Puerto Rico Art Museum through January 1, 2007.
Every once in a while here at Code Z we hear about someone pulling some artifact out of a dusty, old attic or out from under a bed and presenting it to the world in a whole new light. Remember the Roz Payne DVD? Now we find that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta has its own share of hidden corners that need exploring.
Louise Shaw with Global Health Odyssey at the CDC recently told us about a set of African smallpox vaccination posters that have been sitting around the CDC for 10 years without seeing much action, but are now on display for the public. The posters represent a variety of mainly West African nations--Nigeria, Ghana, Sénégal--and are written in English, French, and a variety of indigenous languages. Most date from the tumultuous, yet optimistic era of 1967-1969 when the campaign to eradicate smallpox was hitting its stride.
Louise noted that the posters had been brought from Africa for the 40-year reunion of the smallpox vaccination workers at the CDC, but that "no one had ever focused on how fantastic they were." Which stands to reason as many of the posters were made by pedigreed African printmakers who had studied art or graphic design at one of Nigeria's British-modeled universities: among the artists were Agbo Folarin and Eke Okaybulu. The posters are on display for an indefinite period.
We've been taken with the photography of African artists since we first laid eyes on one of Malick Sidibé's signature Malian portraits--you know the one--that kid leaning back like a cool cat from the 60s. And we note that that West African nation seems to produce more than its fair share of brilliant photographers. The Tate Modern's current discussion series Global Photography Now aims to unpack the sum and substance of photography from around the world, including a session on North Africa that was held on December 1 and another on West Africa to be held December 9 at the Tate in London.
According to the Tate, the discussions "address a wide variety of significant themes and concerns emerging in the latest photography, and assess the impact of, for example, historic images and the media on the direction current practice takes." Ah yes, past becomes present as present becomes future. Participating in the West Africa discussion are artists Akinbode Akinbiyi, Mamadou Gomis, and Zaynab Toyosi Odunsi discussing their work with writer-critic Nancy Hynes and Augustus Casely-Hayford, director of inIVA.
The Tate isn't the first to note the trenchant importance of African photography, as we note that this is just the latest in a long string of exhibitions and symposia dedicated to the topic, not the least of which was ICP's pivotal Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography curated by Nigerian-born Okwui Enwezor in New York.
Every two years an event happens in Burkina-Faso that is eagerly anticipated by many, but still remains under the mainstream radar: The Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO). And organizers are still accepting entries from filmmakers seeking an intenational audience. Taking place in Ouagadougo, Burkina-Faso from February 24 through March 3, 2007, a new complement to the festival, Guild Week, will expand the scope of the festival with fresh perspectives.
Established in 2005 by the Guild of African Film Directors and Producers, Guild Week highlights and emphasizes new orientations and approaches to cinema in Africa, and how the African continent is viewed through cinema.
Headed by Aboubakar Sanogo, Delegate General for Guild Week, The Guild of African Film Directors and Producers is accepting submissions for the 2007 Biennial until December 15. A full list of categories after the jump.
The Guild is seeking films for submissions in the following categories:
1. Exploration-Innovation. This category will foreground the Guild Week's commitment to spearheading and institutionalizing thematic and formal exploration in cinema. The Guild is calling for avant-garde films, films that push the envelope, advance the discourse, the iconography and sonography of how Africa is represented on film.
2. Dissidence. The African Film Directors and Producers Guild sees this as the ideological credo of the Guild Week. The African film guild seeks to encourage a cinema of attitude, both political and aesthetic, the cinematic and audiovisual translation of the duty to dissent. They are calling for films that express defiance and rebelliousness vis-à-vis the current state and image of Africa, films that best express the notion, feeling, and act of disagreement with and opposition to the status quo.
3. Women in Cinema. The Guild believes that women must be adequately represented in their approach to the cinema. They are looking for films that expand, enrich and complicate their understanding and relationship to questions of women, womanhood, femininity or feminism. The judges seek films that address these questions in an original, urgent, compelling, and daring manner.
4. The Popular. In this category, the Guild seeks to engage what's popular. They think that for cinema to be self-sustaining in Africa, it must engage with the popular and have a resolutely popular dimension. The judges are looking for films that best explore this notion of the popular or have had some form of popular reception. Films from newer (e.g., Nollywood) and older (e.g., Egypt) popular cinematic traditions on the continent are encouraged.
5. Rosebud. In this category, they seek to encourage works by new and young filmmakers who are still in or have recently graduated from film schools. The section will showcase their best films. It will also serve as a clearing house for reading scripts and providing funding information.
6. Africa From Without. They are looking for films made by non-African filmmakers about Africa. The films must shed new light and increase knowledge and understanding of the complexities of the continent. They may also be films that have had significant media and public resonance and played a role in the perception of Africa.
The films may be shorts or features, fiction or documentary, but must be sent in DVD format.
To be considered for the 2007 Guild Week, submissions are mailed to Paris, France. More information is available from aboubakar dot sanogo at gmail dot com.
As we sifted through New York's off-off-Broadway shows, we stumbled upon Jake Hooker's Pot-au-Noir at the Chocolate Factory Theater. Pot-au-Noir, or The Black Hole, is a modern remix of Cain and Abel, sprinkled with 20th century Americana, and likes of Baudelaire, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, Abraham Lincoln, and John Steinbeck. And though the show closed November 18, we still find it worthy of mention.
Pot-au-Noir, a variation of the Cain and Abel story, combines religion, 20th century Americana, and the Great American Myth with live music and dance to create an ancient remix. Hooker envisioned the production as John Steinbeck's idea of "a box, made out of wood" where creative works are invented and placed. Hooker and his ensemble collaborated to expand upon "the act of creating and mysteries of living."
Since we dig collaboration efforts of visual art, music and movement, we thought this piece would stand out. With sincere intention, The Black Hole attempts to exhibits the process of creation, but creates a void between the performers and audience, particularly in demonstrating the role of the single black actor as the confidant and servant. As the producer demonstrates the mysteries of creation through the use of a wooden chest, the dialogue and movement of the performers adds layers of complexity and depth.
Somewhere in between the death of Jimi Hendrix and the moment that Run DMC hit the studio with Aerosmith, the African American influence that birthed what we call Rock & Roll had been effectively obscured in the collective cultural consciousness. This struggle for recognition and respect is the focus of Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker, a recent documentary, directed by filmmaker Raymond Gayle. Picking up where Afro Punk--The Rock and Roll Nigger Experience, James Spooner’s 2003 documentary, left off, Electric Purgatory deals head-on with the disconnect between what mainstream popular culture views as appropriately Black, and the areas to which African Americans have consistently contributed.
Historically, while the Bo Diddley’s and Chuck Berry’s were relegated to footnotes and guest spots, boys from Britain and Ireland became music industry darlings. Pop culture shifted, and many Black musicians fell into the cracks; which were summarily covered up by "urban" radio programming. In between those cracks, groups like Fishbone, Bad Brains, and Living Colour developed and rose to prominence.
In a recent interview with The Boston Globe, Gayle offered the following: “We're here to put the work out there and change perceptions. Our job is to say the things that Hollywood won't say. That's what Oscar Micheaux and Paul Robeson did and they opened the door. My job is to walk through--or bust through if need be.”
Screening since June of 2005, and most recently at the Turks and Caicos International Film Festival, Electric Purgatory has enjoyed a run at 10 national and international film festivals. With more dates to come, EP continues to roam the indy film circuit. Don’t hear about it, be about it.
Who am I? What am I doing here? And what does it mean to be an artist? All of these are relatively lofty questions, but not impossible to answer. In a fit of madness, or genius, we will often look to the forebears for guidance, only to experience what can best be described as a creative moment of clarity. The good thing is that such an epiphany doesn't require reading, or sobriety. The illustrious Washington Post, in conjunction with its yearlong series, Being a Black Man, has conducted a handful of video interviews with prominent Black men in the Baltimore/D.C. area. Of the creative stripe, we have Go-Go master Chuck Brown, and artist and educator David Driskell.
Driskell, a distinguished professor emeritus from the University Of Maryland Department Of Art, is also probably just as well known for his role as the personal art consultant for Bill and Camille Cosby, which is well-documented in the book The Other Side of Color. Although brief, Driskell's reflections are succinct. He touches on all of the exposure integral to his artistic development, his role as an educator, and the nature of the beast that we call Black art.
So, if it is enlightenment that you seek, or validation of the path that you're on, you need look no further than Dr. Driskell. But don't take our word for it see for yourself.
Just when we think we've heard the last of them, the folks over at Guerilla Café in Berkeley, USA fill our inbox with yet more interesting events that go way outside the boundaries of typical coffee shop activities. Here are a couple of recent and upcoming events at this unique cultural and gastronomic spot.
Keba Konte, artist in his own right and co-owner of the Guerilla Café with Rachel Konte and Andrea Ali, exhibited his mural "Rethink" at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA). Commissioned by the Alameda County Art Commission, Konte's is the second of two murals to be installed in the Juvenile Justice Center Facility in San Leandro, California. His mural, which was created with the aim to engage, challenge, and inspire disenfranchised youth, was also the second exhibit at the YBCA that exhibits works by artists who use found objects in Oakland.
On December 9, the café will host artist and architect Amanda Williams' opening reception of new paintings, "I Know a Sparrow Should Sing." With a background in architecture, this former Ford/Mellon Research Fellow's collection runs until Saturday, December 17. Admission is free and Clairvoyant Productions will be providing the grooves to get your body moving. This will be Guerilla Café's last exhibition for the year and will close on January 2.
