FOR
THE RECORD:
Review by Donna Thompson
For the Record: Julie
Mehretu, Senam Okudzeto, and Nadine Robinson
Previously on view at The
Studio Museum in Harlem
144 West 125th Street, New York, NY 10027
212.864.4500
The annual exhibition of The Studio Museum in Harlem's Artist-in-Residence
program features three women artists seen in the museum's recent
exhibition, "Freestyle." "For the Record"
presents fifteen works of art in various media by Julie Mehretu,
Senam Okudzeto, and Nadine Robinson. Each artist commands a
sizable space in the museum's second floor galleries.
The first site-specific installation is Julie Mehretu's "Implosion/Explosion."
It provides the entryway into the body of work produced by each
artist over the course of her residency. Mehretu's natural disasters
and catastrophes are nearly undecipherable. Comic-book like
in some forms, they include organic elements and landscape views.
The show's curator describes "Implosion/Explosion"
as "a painting collapsing in on itself and exploding in a corner
of the room." Without this insight, it would be difficult to
understand the meaning or significance of the work, however
rich in aesthetic design and conceptualization.
Similarly, Mehretu's other contributions to the exhibition,
"Untitled (diptych)" (2001) and "Untitled (Centrifuge)"
(2001), employ more clouds, fires, smoke, outlines of staircases,
and the makings of small-cityscapes. Her work is fine-tuned
yet abstract. It contains no human forms (at least not readily
identifiable) and utilizes minimal colors, usually bright pastel-ish
tones shaped in stencil-like form, which compliment the architectural
design quality of the artworks.
Nadine Robinson's work offers a more humanistic connection.
Robinson's smart, personal, and culturally accessible works
include mixed media sound installations and a beyond life-size
canvas covered in human hair. In "Self-portrait
#2 (Boom Toon)" (2001) white circular speakers mirror eyes and tiny-square speakers
a mouth where a variety of characteristically American dance
tunes are played, dating from the 1950s through the 60s. The
tunes range from country western to rhythm and blues and popular
music which play off of the British invasion. Listening closer
you recognize the repetition of the name "Nadine, Nadine, Nadine...."
although it is hard to say whether the name is mentioned in
each song. Obviously the artist has a self-interest in these
tunes but is it beyond the mention of her name? Does the music
inspire her work? Was it produced during the year of her birth?
Listened to by her parents? and therefore present in her formative
years? It is hard to say.
Robinson's "China Sag" (1997-2001) is a bit more explicit
in its self-portrayal. Measuring 100 x 90 inches, the black
canvas is covered in human hair from corner to corner. The canvas
is further personalized through the hair's jet black color and
soft appealing texture. One could image a jumbo-size wide-tooth
combing through every strand of hair.
The title of the piece, "China Sag," gives some clues,
assumptions and/or commentary as to the materials genealogy.
China may refer to the location of the hair's manufacturing
base or to the racial identity of the myriad of shop owners
who sell human hair to black and Latina women for purposes of
extending their own hair length, providing versatility in hairstyle
and innovation (i.e. braiding, twists). Sag is a term present
in menus of South Asian foods (India, Bangladesh), most notably
chana sag, a spicy spinach and chick pea entrée. As hair extensions
became more widely available urban legends would weave histories
of the hair's origin back to poor and working class South Asian
women cutting their hair and selling to manufacturers involved
in import/export. That the hair canvas is shown from the back
magnifies the anonymity of the exchange and the user's intentions
upon purchase.
"Falling Out #2" (2000-1)
and "Odd Girl Out" (2001)
represent Senam Okudzeto's "critical concerns with identity
and globalization." In her "Falling Out" series, silhouetted
female forms float aimlessly within and alongside circular forms
represented by mosaic patterns. The forms are brown or earth
toned, agile, and dynamic. They dance across the work in the
most remarkable and seemingly uncomfortable positions. The varied
positions of these forms could signify the trans-identity of
the African diasporic experience; the ability of Africans to
move from place to place in hostile and less hostile environments,
adopting new cultural and social values while retaining their
identity.
In "Odd Girl Out," Okudzeto
uses more circles; however, these circles contain photographs,
mostly in color. The photographs show whites, blacks and other
racially unclassified folks. In a few of the images the identity
of one of the subjects (presumably the face of the artist) is
replaced by a mirror-like mylar insert which records parts of
the viewer's own face to create a dialogue on place, identity,
and memory. Moving "beyond the boundaries of the grid and off
the surface of the paper," Odd Girl Out" is a clever and
interactive affirmation on issues of migration, history, and
globalization.
The Studio Museum in Harlem's Artist-in-Residence (A-I-R) program
was conceived over 30 years ago and speaks to one of the key
aspects of the institution's mission: to support African American
artists through exhibition and studio space. For the Record
is curated by Christine Y. Kim, the Studio Museum's curatorial
assistant. The exhibition will be on view at the Studio Museum
until September 16.
Donna
Thompson
© 2001,
Donna Thompson
View
work from For the Record 
| Donna Thompson, author of these reviews, is an independent arts
and education consultant specializing in African/African American art and photography. She is a published writer and author of a multimedia curriculum focusing on the history of African American quilt production. She is the co-director of Education and Director of New Media Education at the American Social History Project (City University of New York) where
she directs the National Endowment for the Humanities funded New Media Classroom program, a teaching with technology faculty development program held at college and high school campuses across the country. Donna has a background in art history focusing on the History of Photography (specifically the work of black photographers living and working in the African diaspora) and African American art. She is a member of Coast to Coast: National Women Artists of Color and Entitled: Black Women Artists. |
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