Thelma Golden, Freq It
Steven Psyllos
Further proof of Director of the Studio Museum of Harlem and Chief Curator Thelma Golden’s masterful eye, "Frequency" presents us with yet another set of young black artists set to launch into superstardom. Golden’s first curatorial venture at the Studio Museum was 2001’s "Freestyle." Emerging artists in that group exhibit–28 in total–included the likes of Laylah Ali, Julie Mehretu, Kojo Griffin, Eric Wesley, Tana Hargest, Rico Gatson and Camille Norment. Golden stresses that this is not a sequel to that successful exhibition, but another piercing of the times to reveal the beautiful minds of the day.
Thirty-five artists cannot speak for a culture, nor would Golden like you to think that is the intention. Instead, I find "Frequency" to be a snapshot of contemporary art itself, representing sound installations, drawing, painting, photography, video, digital animation and mixed media. There is no single theme for this exhibition, but the show holds together effortlessly. The beautiful thing about the Studio Museum is its size. Because it is not overwhelmingly large, the exhibits can be powerful and agile at the same time.
Surprisingly, the first thing you will hear upon walking through the exhibit doors is Nas’ "Made You Look," the soundtrack to Jefferson Pinder’s video project, Carwash Meditations. Visually, Pinder harkens that moment of contemplation when you are alone with your hiphop, or whatever music you favor, when it is your only companion, guiding along your thoughts. Pinder describes the inspiration of the project: "Car washing is a statement in many minority communities. In the gritty urban landscape a clean car represents not only care for a prized possession, but a sacred cleaning of your vessel, a personification." The second video on rotation is Invisible Man, in which Pinder summons Ralph Ellison’s masterpiece on Harlem life. While watching the blurring intensification of lights, you will hear the sound installation located behind you creep, a swirl of clapping hands and religious chants. This is Kianga Ford’s Urban Revival. Her ambient sounds mix recordings from a yoga studio, singers at a karaoke bar, dance lessons, a gathering at the World Unity Center, and her grandfather’s funeral service. She provides a plush red velvet sofa reminiscent of those at old movie houses to recline and absorb.
The interplay of Meditations and Revival make for a nice parallel to the scope of the show and the inspiration behind the works collected. There is definitely a hiphop sensibility–that is, a young urban popular culture sensibility–to some of the works, while others remain high-brow. The collection as a whole is benefited by the inclusion of the various approaches to modern expression, and the works lend energy to one another elevating the show as a whole.
Robert Pruitt, whom I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing a few years back, uses conte crayon drawings on butcher paper to juxtapose past and present images of blackness. His Corporate CEO is a young handsome man wearing jacket and tie–breast pocket handkerchief peeking–over traditional African tribe skirt and sandal.
A trophy of this exhibition is Paula Wilson’s Turf. Using oil, ink and found objects on several woodblocks, she gathers the spectrum of natural patterns in a blossoming tropical composition. Lush flora, rigid tree bark, smooth fish scales, the prickled skin of strawberries. Her palette consists of subtle, dawning tones, as each separate square panel sprouts another offshoot of vibrant energy. On the bottom left corner of the wall-sized work is a projected video segment showing a hand pulling leaves from a branch while flies circle.
Jina Valentine, Assistant Director of the Fleisher-Ollman Gallery in Philly, presented a lacey cut-out of record sleeves that hung from the wall and rested at the viewer’s feet. The elaborate pattern veiled a quaint country wallpaper behind, the two patterns meshing beautifully. The work is titled Appetite for Destruction: the Top 40 Best-Selling Albums Ever, exposing the way popular music becomes a part of our lives, enhancing our living/head space. Her second work, though smaller, continues on this theme.
Some artists steer clear of race politics, others do not. Most effective is William Villalongo’s The Centaur’s Kiss, a small statue of a General Custer riding upon a saddled black centaur whose head is that of an African princess adorned in gold jewelry and rhinestone necklace. The horses’ front left leg morphs into an arm holding the fallen head of an African girl in traditional headwrap. As the two faces meet eye to eye, the centaur perhaps contemplates her distant life, far from colonization and slavery, as if her world has become a frightening dream. The weakest in this category is Michael Paul Britto’s Dirrrty Harriet Tubman blaxploitation movie poster and DVD projection.
A familiar riff on the consumer mentality of our day appears in Hank Willis Thomas’ Branded Head in which a black male’s bald head boasts a Nike swoosh. It is not a new argument that urban culture’s obsession with brands is a new form of slavery, yet Thomas’ slick ad-like image makes you immediately question if you already saw it in last month’s glossy, and for that it is effective. Thomas’ Liberation of T.O.: Ain’t no way I’m go’n in back ta’work fa’massa in dat darn field finds a black youth holding a football and darting from his boss, his eyes resolute, leaving behind a small chaos in his wake. The concept of black youth escaping poverty through sports is here treated with sly humor, but again, it conjures up other manifestations of the same thought and is therefore not so fresh.
Thomas collaborates with Kambui Olujimi on a four-minute DVD projection in the Studio’s upstairs mini theater. After sitting through the rather boring attempts that preceded it, Winter in America immediately caught my eye due to its use of old GI Joe figures as the stop-action main characters. The simple plot revolves around a group of friends who have just had a great night chilling after some time apart. What follows is a grim turn of events, when one of the friends is held up by gunpoint and killed in the fresh winter snow.
Overall, curator Thelma Golden proves to be the star of the show for bringing these artists together. "Frequency" highlights artists that deserve the shine, and keeps us looking uptown for a fresh approach.
