Effortlessly floating, the artist competes with various forces – gravity being only one of them – as he tests his physical endurance to stay ascendant while suspended vertically over a plinth. The risk of failure is omnipresent. He compels the viewer to witness the historical layers of pain and tenuous labor that constantly threaten the possibilities of the monumental: Respect, remembrance, and being seen.
Read MoreIn 2015, Thamsanqa Jantjie drew attention for his delirious “signing” during Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, the most globally-viewed African event to date, unintentionally shedding light on corruption in South Africa and the disenfranchisement of the Deaf community. When confronted with his administration’s handling of Jantjie’s hiring, President Zuma took the insult a step farther and coined the fake signs as ‘Zulu-Sign Language’.
Read MoreIn this one hour performance, distilled into a video synopsis, the artist provokes layers of surveillance by assembling black and brown performers to drive slowly through Mount Greenwood, Chicago, where many police officers reside. The drivers, in an ordered assembly of twenty vehicles, observe the neighborhood and disrupt traffic patterns in this sleepy, conservative community. Quietly, while being observed, a team of uniformed police gather on the streets and a police chopper appears overhead. Tensions rise as anxious residents and police seek to gain control over the situation.
Read MoreA turbulent labor dispute in Elaine, Arkansas in 1919 led to hundreds of killings in the heart of the Deep South. An unmarked mass grave in which many were buried lies in a field outside of town near a rusted water tower. In this video, the artist makes a journey across a budding cotton field to arrive at the subtle burial mound and then, back again. The artist ventures into a hostile space to grapple with the unmarked symbols of systemic oppression.
Read MoreEugene Williams, age 17, was stoned to death by white teenagers while floating over to the “white side” of a Chicago beach on July 27th, 1919. On the exact time and date 100 years later, the artist sends a group of performers adrift. Connected by rope in the mighty Lake Michigan, the large ensemble becomes a monument to the moment in which racial difference tore apart the fiber of Chicago. Now, in the present, a mixed-race group struggles to hold together, as the same forces that led to Eugene’s float are still present today.
Read MoreFire and Movement retraces the route and narrative of the 1917 Camp Logan Uprising, one of Houston’s most complicated and often misrepresented historical events. The uprising saw African American soldiers of the 24th United States Infantry revolt and attempt to march on the city in response to the abuse from white citizens and the police in Jim Crow-era Houston. In this work, a group of trained performers reenact the militaristic formations and movements the soldiers took, as they sought to gain control of the racist situation.
Read MorePreparing to engage with demons of past and present day, This is Not a Drill considers training techniques inspired by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, The Black Panther Party, and Marine Corps. The artist and performers rehearse close-order drills, bo staff training, boxing, and shooter drills to delve into communal strength and find unity through ritualized physical routines. Trained by seasoned Gulf War vets, the performance crew spent months researching and readying themselves. The audience bears witness to the deliberate series of training exercises, as if they walked in upon the preparations for an inevitable fight.
Read MoreIn Sonic Boom, Pinder initiated a spiritual journey that ended up in the very location where it began. This exercise in futility proves to be a rite of passage, as he tests the threshold of a vintage “muscle car.” Accompanied by a local brass band, fanfare and ritual gives way, as the sound of the car engine echoes against the walls of the old Walter Reed Veterans Hospital in Washington, DC. Pinder accelerates the vehicle to the limit, and spectators watch as flames threaten to end the work prematurely.
Read MoreThe second performance, Joe's Barbershop, features Joe McLemore, a 73 year-old Iowa barber, cutting hair in the museum as he discusses his unique views on race relations for blacks in the Quad Cities (QC). His frank monologue revealed a sober dose of self-determination in the face of racism.
Read MoreThe symbol of the Ghost Light references the theatrical superstition in which the darkened stage is illuminated by a light, often a single electric bulb mounted to a stand, intended to ward off the theater’s ghosts. In the absence of a performance, the Ghost Light becomes representative of all of the lives and narratives that have inhabited that space.
Read MoreToken, features a conservative white midwestern artist that exercises his right as an artist to sculpt from black models. The subject matter is, not too different from recent conversations about race at the Whitney, but is more complex than anyone could ever have imagined.
Read MoreIn 2002, I embarked on a series of video work called the Inertia Cycle. The primary focus of these videos is to explore physicality and intense exertion as it relates to the black body. As a society, we admire athletics. We revel in watching athletes push their bodies to their limits. In the Inertia Cycle I am exploring the theatrics of physical labor. For Northern Spark, the video performance piece Relay conveyed the quiet heroics of a community. Working as a meditative projection, viewers caught glimpse of Somali-Americans using the action of running as a metaphor for labor in a transformative journey. In this work, a continual stream of people are striving to move forward.
Read MoreIn this three-ringed spectacle, Pinder transforms the Defibrillator space into a playground for the body and mind. In three distinct heroic exercises, he embodies the role of the most contemporary black trope, the ‘Magical Negro’. In an exchange with the audience, he demonstrats how physical actions can explore the darker side of this complex stereotype. Accompanied by music and narration, this performance challenges the viewer to understand how both absurd and rational actions can be imbued with racial meaning in context with the use of the black body.
Read MoreWhat does it look like when millennials take to the street? Moved by the physicality of rebellion, Pinder collaborated with a group of accomplished break dancers called The Lionz of Zion. The piece explored how breakdancing best captured the explosive nature of spontaneous protest. This performance featured acrobatics, gesturing to how athletic movement can be used as a way of creating conversations around social struggle. Employing intense police lights, minimal costuming, smoke, and music, the team of break dancers wove a loose narrative to produce a chilling effect.
Read MoreThe term “thoroughbred” describes pure-bred horses known for their agility and speed. Referencing the legacy of comparing black bodies to “beasts of burden", four black performers step onto treadmills in a white-walled Chicago gallery space and work themselves to exhaustion. The treadmills, which are controlled by the artist, push the small group of runners to their physical limit as the speed is increased. The implicated spectators watch as the work devolves to one strong runner. What starts in a beautiful unison ends in dramatic fashion, as the performers struggle to keep pace with the accelerating apparatuses.
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