JOIRI MINAYA, THE CLOAKING SERIES
The Cloaking series challenges the presence of colonial statues in urban spaces, using colorful spandex fabric to conceal and simultaneously bring attention to these monuments, questioning which narratives get memorialized and which are omitted…
WU TSANG, WE HOLD WHERE STUDY, 2017
The feeling of communication is very elusive,” Tsang has said. “In being seen by another, there’s always an incompleteness to that understanding…
TEXAS ISAIAH, MY NAME IS MY NAME
My Name is My Name incorporates photography and a system of celebration (altar) to highlight the multi-dimensional relationship between ancestry, ceremonial rituals, elements within nature, dream etching, and protection…
SHIRIN NESHAT, TURBULENT, 1998
Turbulent is one of Neshat’s most critically acclaimed films, having been awarded the Lion d’or at the Venice Biennale in 1999. It was also her first foray into the realm of video, a medium that subsequently has played a major role in her artistic production…
JONATHAS DE ANDRADE, ZUMBI INCARNATED, 2014
An invitation to the Senegalese immigrant Abdou G. P., that recently had arrived in Brazil in 2014, to visit the lands of the Quilombo dos Palmares settlement and incorporate the myth of Zumbi, the legendary slave that resisted and escaped to be one of the leaders of the greatest Quilombo…
MONICA BONVICINI, NEVER AGAIN, 2005
Never Again consists of a collection of swings composed from steel pipes, black leather, and chains, suspended from a steel structure…
PAUL PFEIFFER, RACE RIOT, 2001
In Race Riot, Paul Pfeiffer memorializes the 1996 NBA Championship in which the Chicago Bulls win the tournament. The basic image is a clip from the final victory—the moment in which Michael Jordan falls to the floor, back to the camera, hugging the ball as his teammates gather around him...
TRACEY EMIN, MY BED, 1998
First created in 1998, it was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999 as one of the shortlisted works for the Turner Prize. It consisted of her bed with bedroom objects in a dishevelled state, and gained much media attention…
DREAD SCOTT, WHAT IS THE PROPER WAY TO DISPLAY A US FLAG?,1988
In 1989, while on display at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, What is the Proper Way…? became the center of national controversy over its use of the American flag. President Bush Sr. declared What is the Proper Way…
GARRETT BRADLEY, AMERICA, 2019
According to the Library of Congress, around 70 percent of all feature-length films made in the US between 1912 and 1929 no longer exist. In America (2019), artist and filmmaker Garrett Bradley imagines Black figures from the early decades of the 20th century whose lives have been lost to history…
BRUCE NAUMAN, GOOD BOY BAD BOY, 1985
In Good Boy Bad Boy, two monitors are displayed at head height on pedestals. The head and shoulders of a young black man appear on one; on the other is an older white woman. They both speak the same one hundred phrases, which are the repeated conjugation of the verb 'to be' linked with the term 'good boy'…
ADRIAN PIPER: WHAT IT’S LIKE, WHAT IT IS #3, 1991
Adrian Piper’s What It’s Like, What It Is #3 (1991), a large-scale mixed-media installation addressing racist stereotypes. Consisting of a gleaming white amphitheater with a nine-foot-tall column at its center and reflective mirrors surrounding its upper periphery, the installation’s sleek geometry recalls a work of Minimalist sculpture…