Chicago — Work Collection — Jefferson Pinder

Prowl

In 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.

Performance, VideoLeaf SilverJune 11, 2020prowl, cars, police, Chicago, CPD, Mount Greenwood, 2020

float

Eugene 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.

Performance, VideoLeaf SilverAugust 28, 20192019, Lake Michigan, Eugene Williams, Beach, Chicago

Magical Negro Egungun

In 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.

Performance, Video, ObjectsLeaf SilverSeptember 11, 20142013, Chicago

Thoroughbred

The 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.

Performance, VideoLeaf SilverAugust 11, 20142014, Chicago

Elevator Music

Performance, VideoLeaf SilverSeptember 11, 20122012, Chicago