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FREESTYLE: Review by Donna Thompson

Recently on view at The Studio Museum in Harlem

September 29 - November 18, 2001
Santa Monica Museum of Art
2525 Michigan Avenue, Building G-1
Santa Monica CA 90404
301.586.6488

Welcome to the 21st century of post-black art. "Freestyle," an exhibition which was recently on view at the Studio Museum in Harlem and will be at the Santa Monica Museum of Art from September 29 - November 18, explored the artworks of 28 young black artists whose work is framed and/or inspired by hip hop music, multiculturalism, and a generation of black artists who emerged in the 80s and 90s.

The exhibition includes work by a fair number of black women artists including Julie Mehretu, Laylah Ali, Adia Millett, Deborah Grant, Camille Norment, Tana Hargest, Kira Lynn Harris, Senam Okudzeto, Jennie C. Jones, Nadine Robinson, and Susan Smith-Pinelo. (All are illustrated here.) Most of these artists were born after the Civil Rights movement and have studied the discourse on black art and popular culture to offer a fresh perspective on identity, culture, and aesthetics. Three of the eleven were not American-born but all are working in the U.S.

From the stick man fighting figures of Laylah Ali to the amorphous cloud-like formations produced by Kira Lynn Harris, the women artists in "Freestyle" have managed to break new ground in media ranging from photography, works on paper, new media technologies (CD-ROMs), sound installation, video, and painting. This range of exhibited media signifies a marked change in issues of access and ownership of forms of cultural production utilized by black women artists over the last 25 years. As such, it lends itself to the artwork being described as humorous, poetic, and clever. The works appear as free, innovative, and not readily connected to a particular classification of art production and/or theory. Although some may argue that "Freestyle's" "post-multicultural, post-identity, post-conceptual, and post-black" agenda is misleading at best.

Jennie C. Jones' "Homage to an Unknown Suburban Black Girl" (2001) introduces us to a dated photographic portrait (presumably of the artist) of a young girl dressed in a pristine party dress, with matching opaque pantyhose and a glorified Afro. She is seemingly comfortable within her surroundings but the camera presents some ambivalence in how she is represented. Whether the Technicolor blandness of the color photograph or the contradiction in the cultural clues -- white organza dress, opaque pantyhose, kinky, untamed hair -- the sitter is actively engaging in a dialogue with the viewer on the complexities of representation, gender, and race. All this is framed in a constellation of Mondrian-inspired horizontal and vertical lines, a virtual map quest of self- (re)construction.

In Susan Smith-Pinelo's video installation, "Sometimes" (2000), a bustling, bubbly, bundle of "busts" is shown up close in a white T-shirt embracing a gold chain with the word "ghetto" as the Michael Jackson tune, "Working Day and Night," blazes in the background. Part exhibition and part commentary, the image encourages insight on how women's bodies, particularly the black woman's body, is objectified, stereotyped, and maligned in popular culture through gangsta rap and hip hop videos which showcase black women in g-strings, and identifies them as bitches and hoes. As younger black women from pre-teens to 20-somethings contemplate this imagery, thoughts of true representations of black womanhood abound: What aspects of her are like me? Aren't I a woman? She's workin' it. She needs to (fill-in-the-blank)! Smith-Pinelo's installation represents one of the links to the exhibition's thesis in its use of sound (music), popular culture imagery, and language.

Another noteworthy collection of images are the Pac-man-like stick figures of Laylah Ali. Untitled (2000) shows us a row of four identical figures marching in single file. The cartoon like figures are overshadowed by their bowling-ball sized heads colored in half-black, half-gray tones. However enjoyable it is to look at Ali's work in this exhibition, it is difficult to leave the work and not feel a sense of having missed something important. You are enriched by the work's aesthetic qualities and yet puzzled by its inherent ambiguity.

Now back to the free in "Freestyle" -- it is certainly present, one cannot disagree. Each artwork stands on its own. It is difficult to make connections, collaborations, or present a solid framework or foundation in which to view these images. Perhaps that's a strength. Perhaps not. The viewer is left to apply self-knowledge, or outside experience to the complex narratives showcased in this exhibition. Perhaps the show is so post-conceptual that it reverts back to its origins by default. And what of the common person's experience in viewing a collection of work which describes itself as "post-black"? How will a non-trained viewer draw a connection to the exhibition's theme? Or are they to be excluded from the dialogue, which purports to speak about and for them in a post-black, 21st century context? That is unclear too.

What is clear is that the Studio Museum has brought together a refreshing look at art being produced by young black artists (average age is 32) who are showing across the country, using a variety of media. "Freestyle" offers possibilities for how black art could be defined in the coming decades while not abandoning the body of work loosely defined as identity art which advanced black art over the last 20 to 25 years. The exhibition is a daring but welcome forecast for what lies ahead.

"Freestyle" was organized by Studio Museum's Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs, Thelma Golden. A 72-page catalogue published by the museum accompanies the exhibition and includes an introduction written by Golden, color and black and white illustrations, artist biographies, a checklist and entries on each artist by a variety of authors. It is available from the Museum store (212-595-0515).

"Freestyle" will be on view September 29 - November 18, 2001 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The museum is located near Interstate highway I-10 at Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Building G-1, Santa Monica CA 90404. Hours are Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 6, Sunday 12 - 5. Suggested admission donation is $3. Telephone number is 301-586-6488.

Donna Thompson
© 2001, Donna Thompson

View work from Freestyle