AND THIS IS WHAT MY OTHER HAND WAS DOING...
THIS IS MY SHRINE TO THE TRANCE-FORMING POWER OF THE NEEDLE ARTS. THE PLANT IS NOT PART OF THE INSTALLATION, IT WAS PLACED BESIDE MY SHRINE BECAUSE THE FLOOR WHERE WAS PLACED, WAS BEING CLEANED.... AFTER I SAW THE PLANT NEXT TO MY WORK, I SAID, Hhhhmmmm, I THINK I LIKE THE WAY THAT LOOKS.
THIS INSTALLATION IS TITLED TRANCE-FORMER, IT IS BASED ON THE SAYING THAT GOES... "IT'S NOT THE SIZE OF THE WAND.... BUT... IT'S THE SKILL OF THE MAGICIAN"'. AND A LITTLE BASED ON THE JOHN HENRY STORY. HIGH TECH & THE SPIRIT OF HUMANITY.
CLOSE-UP SHOT OF THE SEWING MACHINE, WITH SOME UPSPUN COLORFULLY DYED WOOL AND BEADS IN THE DRAW, PIN CUSHION & BOX, MANDALA BEING SEWN TOGETHER ON THE SEWING MACHINE, BRIGHT GREEN THREAD, AND A BRANCH OF COTTON.
THIS IS THE INSIDE OF THE TENT WITH 20 PRYMID SHAPED RED EMPTY BEAUTIFUL BOTTLES OF SOUTH AFRICAN RUM. I WAS AT A OPENING OF AN EXHIBIT THAT WAS SERVING THIS RUM, WHEN I SAW THE BOTTLES THAT THE RUM CAME FROM, I ASKED IF I COULD HAVE THE EMPTY BOTTLES THAT THEY WERE THROWING OUT. I JUST LOVE THESE BOTTLES. I MET SOMEONE WHO IS FRIEND WITH THE MANUFACTURE OF THIS RUM FROM THIS EXHIBIT, I PLAN TO GET IN TOUCH WITH THEM... STAY TUNED FOR THE CONTINUATION IS THIS STORY.
OPENING NIGHT OF THE EXHIBIT, MAN-O-MAN, WAS I HAPPY TO FINALLY GET THIS PIECE INSTALLED, THE DIRECTOR OF THE GALLERY RUTH NEWMAN WAS A SAINT IN HELPING ME WITH THE INSTALLATION.
NYU Steinhardt's 80 Washington Square East Galleries are pleased to present the exhibition S & M: Shrines and Masquerades in Cosmopolitan Times, which is being staged in conjunction with The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles / Recent Art at NYU's Grey Art Gallery and a parallel exhibition titled The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The shrine and the masquerade are among humanity's most ancient strategies of negotiation with the vast forces of history and nature. Cloth shrines, costumes, clothing, and arrangements of household items, have long served as forceful talismans whose integration into daily life was an essential source of their power. The portability of these articles of faith has been invaluable to nomadic African cultures. Now, in an era of global travel, the prestige and distinction of costume, from couture to cross-dressing, can be packed across continents in a single suitcase. The lightness of cloth belies the strength of beliefs, which flourish without the shelter of stone churches. In an ever-increasing proliferation of form, the shrine remains a portal to dimensions where attitude alone may not prevail.
The artists in this exhibition: Almighty God, Xenobia Bailey, Nancy Barton, Chris Bogia, Onyedika Chuke, Samuel Fosso, Phyllis Galembo, Lyle Ashton Harris, Jim Hodges, Leyden Ynobe Lewis, Thomas McDonell & Richie Gergel, Zanele Muholi, Senga Nengudi, Robert Pruitt, Tracey Rose and Kehinde Wiley invent extraordinary shrines and masquerades, incorporating portraits, sculptures, pattern, illusion, sounds and color. They reference forces they fear, admire, and love, or simply those they wish to remain near. This submission to faith may be a response to the closeness of death, to mourning, a rebellion against imposed identities, or a belief in the transformative power of beauty. The artist's desire to create and control, the wish to impose a certain order, could be taken for cruelty, or as evidence that the spirits of good fortune might do well to pay us a visit.
These three exhibitions promise to create an exciting dialogue around the legacies of African art in a new, cosmopolitan moment.
Gallery Viewing Hours at the 80 Washington Square East Galleries: Tuesday 10-7 / Wednesday & Thursday 10-6 / Friday & Saturday 10-5
