top of page

Vertigo @ Midnight: New Visual Afrofuturisms and Speculative Migrations

2015

Curated by Dr. Valorie Thomas
Clark Humanities Museum, Scripps College | Chan Gallery, Pomona College

Claremont, CA 

Installation Images: Vertigo @ Midnight 23 - March 6, 2015

Vertigo @ Midnight opens dialogue about disorientation and equilibrium through the lens of African Diasporic Vertigo as a cultural idiom in AfroFuturist and speculative art. The artwork in this exhibition ventures into the crossroads, shifting and challenging everything we think we know about race, space, gender, science, magic, technology, the alien and the human.

Looking at elements within the installation: The Sculptures

install images pomona and scripps.jpg

Confessional, 2015, Mixed Media, Video Runtime: 02:32

​

 Confessional mimics both traditional institutional display, and religious architectural elements through the use of the “confessionals”, which allows the audience to engage in an introspective and reflective space permitting a literal and physiological space of entry and contemplation. The video embedded in the sculpture explores concepts of inherited racial and social constructs including but not limited to the masquerading of masculinity and the methodically crafted theology of hierarchal worship.

IMG_1880.JPG

The Right of Chastisement: Punish the Body and Correct the Soul, 2014, mixed media, video runtime 02:55 each

 

“Right of Marriage” compiled in the 1400s by Frair Cherubion operationalized the process for the physical and mental domination of a husband in the ruling of his wife.  As the resonance of Frair Cherubion's recommendations on male-female relations appears to be widespread the video sculpture The Right of Chastisement: Punish the Body and Correct the Soul explores connections of hetero and alpha male attitudes of domination, religious acts of submission and confession, and sexual hierarchies.

 

Juxtaposing a glamorized clip of Jackson Pollock demonstrating his famous technique of dribbling paint over pure and untouched canvases with a film negative depicting a mans physical and mental domination of an alleged adolescent the viewer is directed to witness only the actions of both males as red geometric objects work to erase the receiver of their actions from consideration. Referencing religious kneelers used for confessionals the sculpture directs the viewer to assume a physical position of submission /contrition while witnessing the actions of the male protagonist.

IMG_7840.jpg

Theological Racism and the Suspension of Belief, 2015, mixed media, dimensions variable

 

The ancient astronaut theory, which first appeared in the early science fiction of the late 19th to early 20th century, hypothesizes that Egyptians and various South American civilizations couldn’t possibly have built their pyramids and temples without the help of aliens. Theological Racism and the Suspension of Belief attempts to address the racist undertones present in this theory.

 

A levitation device hovers a tinted globe seemingly magically over the tabletop while the bottom of the table hides a scale model of one of the original Egyptian pyramids. The apparent violation of the universal laws of nature and our daily experience of those laws is simply a distraction from the real physical marvel. I Incorporate museum informational design standards such as stanchions and pedestals to create physical and psychological division between the viewer and object; these techniques conjure a level of authority and credibility to the viewing process. By using disinformation design, both the revealed illusion and the concealed truth are exposed on the same plane.

Vertigo @ Midnight: New Visual Afrofuturisms and Speculative Migrations

Curated by Dr. Valorie Thomas
Clark Humanities Museum, Scripps College | Chan Gallery, Pomona College

Vertigo @ Midnight opens dialogue about disorientation and equilibrium through the lens of African Diasporic Vertigo as a cultural idiom in AfroFuturist and speculative art. The artwork in this exhibition ventures into the crossroads, shifting and challenging everything we think we know about race, space, gender, science, magic, technology, the alien and the human.​

The Artists

  • L[E]^2 {Lee Blalock}

  • Chakaia Booker

  • Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons

  • Chris Christion

  • Oluwatobi Clement (PO '14)

  • Sydney Dyson (PO '14)

  • Claude Fiddler

  • Krista Franklin

  • Sharon Grier

  • Karen Hampton

  • Zeal Harris

  • David Huffman

  • Lek Jeyifous

  • Ademola Olugebefola

  • Glynnis Reed

  • Cauleen Smith

  • Renee Stout

  • Sheila Walker

  • Jessica Wimbley

  • Saya Woolfalk

For more information click here

bottom of page