Introduction
Memory runs like an aquifer beneath the works of the five artists in this exhibition. Like an aquifer, memory is the storehouse for the life-giving substance that sustains and shapes the landscape of their artistic practice. Sometimes the water lies just below the surface; for Mark Bradford and Maya Freelon, the memories are of a mother, a beloved grandmother, and vibrant African American community traditions. Sometimes the water table is deep underground. Rotimi Fani-Kayode and Manuel Mendive draw on African cultural and spiritual traditions centuries old. Ivan Forde, looking to the Epic of Gilgamesh, reaches back millennia to tap into a wellspring of inspiration.
All five artists mark memories in the sense of honoring them as well as literally manifesting them in their visual artworks. Bringing personal and shared memories to the surface, this work is part of the replenishing and sustaining of communities so crucial to these artists. Mark Bradford unapologetically delves into the intersecting issues of race, history and politics to uncover deep inequities. He also founded and funds a non-profit organization, Art + Practise, that supports neighborhood initiatives and marginalized young people.
Mendive shares an inherited wisdom that sees nature, animals, and people as inter-related and interdependent. In the spirit of welcome, he creates curved sculptures that allow people to enter his landscapes and performances where his paintings come to life on the bodies of dancers. He reaches out, “because I am here in this space, and it is important that we meet each other, that I know your secrets, you know mine, and this will help us to feel better.”
Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s career was brief, but his legacy is long-lasting. A queer artist working at the height of the AIDS crisis in Europe and America, he tasked himself with using his photography to confront and dismantle prejudice. “Both aesthetically and ethically, I seek to translate my rage and my desire into new images which will undermine conventional perceptions, and which may reveal hidden worlds.” After his death from AIDs complications in 1989, images of his work circulated in London community centers and through LGBTQ publications.
Freelon defines art as not just drawing on community, but essential to its well-being, stating “I want to make art that’s inclusive, art that’s accessible and art that helps build bridges.” She references the humanist African concept of Ubuntu: I Am Because We Are—a statement that is also used in contemporary Africanist discourse to critique colonialism. This exhibition is titled after her work in the Escalette Collection, that asks us to begin once more, move forward.
Forde has expressed his intention to “share the skills I have so rigorously tried to acquire with forward thinking, positive individuals and organizations.” Drawing from the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest work of epic literature in the world, his work encompasses the themes, fears, and desires that make us human. Gilgamesh tried, and failed, to secure immortality. Perhaps, after all, it’s a secret that these five artists wish to share: that it lies in memories, revived and passed forward, that allow all of us to Begin/Again.
Begin/Again: Marking Black Memories is curated by Lindsay Shen and Jessica Bocinski. Support is generously provided by the Ellingson Family, the Phyllis and Ross Escalette Permanent Collection of Art, and Wilkinson College of Art, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Animation provided by The Ideation Lab.