Gauntlet
2015
I was thinking about initiation with this piece. What does it mean to be a part of a group that must constantly be initiated into culture by violent means? The work is often labeled as a “Black Lives Matters’ piece. In the broadest sense perhaps it is, but I had started it well before that term came into popular consciousness. In actuality I began the work when I found out that there is actually a ‘Chicago Billy Club’. This sparked my imagination. I began to hand make Billy clubs with a lathe. The final aesthetic touch on the creation of these clubs was to light them on fire and char them, making them effectually useless. Similar to the removal of a firing pin, a charred Billy club becomes one of the oldest art tools known to man. Matisse, Matthew Barney and others have used awkwardly long charcoal sticks to make beautiful formal work, my black charcoal stick is about perhaps a history of violence and intensity. The shadows cast on the walls and the floor place the viewer in the midst of my drawing, and initiate them in this experience. Perhaps in this way, it’s one of the most interactive pieces in the exhibition.
~ Jefferson Pinder