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| Checked out the new summer shows at Studio Harlem and this year's artist-in-residents stuck out like a chewing gum with nonstop flavor. |
In the asymmetrical upstairs gallery of
Studio Harlem, among low ceilings, white walls and glossy hardwood
floors, newly opened exhibition honors the museum legacy's three
precocious artist-in-residents tradition. This year's eclectic
trinity simultaneously pummel center stage without tripping over
individual independence.
Everything, Everyday thrusts forth
magical manifestations of glitter and glamor tropes framed in a vapid
sense of bourgeois commonality. Interruptions of psycholedic
afrofuturism narrative weave in between Eric Mack, Sadie Barnett, and
Lauren Halsey's wickedly delicious outer space continuum, their sharp
laser-beamed unison encompassing defiant push and pull puppeteer
mechanics.
Theoretically, afrofuturism is a pulpy
concept beyond scope of tomorrow, blending visual art, literary
writing, and science fiction in a consciously hot boiling pot with
African diaspora seeds embedded in thought-provoking soil.
Intellectual movement introduces gratifying brain stimulation to
black consciousness; that kind of cerebral titillating stimulation
serving as an erotically engaging current to those who know
clandestine secrets and those in fetal yearning. The paradoxical
triad of Mack, Barnett, and Halsey escort us into the golden cusp of
afrofuturism via tersely maneuvered installations.
Mack's vivacious, high contrast
palette emerges straight from Octavia Butler's obscure tenacity-
sucking on systematic witchcraft and ironic symphonies playing
orchestrated anarchy. Thick paint applique fabrics seem to mimic
splattered blood speckles. Deliberate and intense like a
confrontation, these vocal green and blue earth colored splotches
deliver meaningful blows in a voracious rioting scream of acid
tongued linguistics. Two medium sized urban styled jackets- one black
bubbled and the other denim- feature fat sinister metal grommet holes
like riddled bullet holes. On white hangers, they spin slow and
creepily as if mirroring a barbaric Southern lynching. These ghastly
unassuming 'bodies' tell cathartic stories that appear an almost
violent commentary on the short life span of the African descendent
or perhaps spark fueling debate about the politics behind used,
voided cloth. In its sparkle, glimmered, textured surface, there is a
mundane attitude, something cold and deceptive spitting blunt,
metaphorical rhymes. He has carefully and precisely sewn together
modern time with old history, logic with confusion.
Barnett is the pragmatic
documentarian. Vivid, chromogenic color prints have a peculiar
three-dimensional sensory reaching out and touching in soft, sedulous
pleasure, harrowing leverage mirroring dilated pupils overwhelming
eye sockets. On another wall, Barnett's collection of typewritten
letters with faded stains and aged off white paper housed behind
wooded frames and glass are highlighted by direct ceiling bulbs. They
entail passionate correspondence from the heated 1970's. Angela Davis
had been forced underground to escape the FBI who placed her on
America's Most Wanted list, but these collected manifestos contain
behind-the-scenes rebellious visionaries determined to keep Davis a
free woman. Barnett has spoken strong, articulate language
transcending boundaries of the norm. She lets past accounts bridge
onto gaping passages of the now and of gritty obstacles burgeoning on
horizon.
Halsey is the savory third branch,
reigning sharp corners in a sweet effervescent surprise- a profoundly
whimsical work-in-progress. On one side of her monumental cave
installation, viewers are seductively invited inside hand tiled
plaster floor and ceiling, reading chiseled Egyptian hieroglyphics as
though in the midst of archaeological excavation. However, these are
not typical, historically accurate Egyptian hieroglyphics nestled in
perfect squared compositions. Alongside geometric pyramids and
pharaoh motifs are braided hairstyles, nappy Afros, repetitive Air
Jordan logos, chewed out Ebonics, and other recognizable iconographic
chronology defining the twenty-first century black American
experience. At cave end, majestic African deities simmer, but
ambitious architecture turns monstrously abstract, submerging out of
morphed wall in pastel colored clusters. Another white wall, resuming
path of handmade cave, has rhinestones spelling “V.I.P.,” brown
skinned portraits, and burned CDs. Just when engulfing enough
saccharine dripped visual confection, Halsey presents an ebony world
with outbursts of schematic saturation. A white My Little Pony with
black synthetic braids hides under a cliff where a rainbow sun hangs
mid orbit. A question rises to the surface. Is Halsey a reincarnated
Butler? How else can one entomb heavy handed diligence and serious
astrological chops?
Unified Mack, Barnett, and Halsey are
varied in approaches, but sustain a quiet, ingenuous dignity.
Everything, Everyday is an arousing, sophisticated science
promising intellectual lexicons that aren't insufferable complicated
jargon.
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| My traveling companion was Jonathan Chase an up and coming artist also in PAFA's illustrious MFA program. It was nice seeing what Studio Harlem's residents have to offer the world this year. |
