(Source: gaze-interrupted, via liquorinthefront)
![derica:
Dean by Lola Flash from the [sur]passing series (2003)
“[sur]passing is […] a series of larger than life size color portraits that probe the impact skin pigmentation plays on black identity and consciousness. Primarily due to the melanin count of their skin, light and dark-skinned blacks opportunities can differ enormously ranging from overt favoritism to extreme alienation. Kobena Mercer coins this process as a “pigmentocracy” - based on skin-tone. This scandalous and often heart wrenching story line dates back to colonial America and it clearly perseveres today.
In [sur]passing the models are shot with a large format camera from towering urban vantage points, highlighting the re-generation of a new inner-city culture, they become divine, larger than the purposely out of focus buildings of the London, New York and South African skylines, in contrast to the sharp, crisp rendering of each subject. The subjects assertively return the gaze, without being confrontational and by hanging the four-foot by five-foot photographs above eye level, the viewer has no choice but to “look up” to these young people posed as if characters from a modern Shakespeare melodrama.So, as the title [sur]passing suggests, these portraits represent a “new generation” - one that is above and beyond “passing”. We represent a fresh pride and strength; where ambiguity and blurred borders create an individuality that elevates consciousness and advances a plethora of complex and positive imagery of [black] people in the Diaspora and all over the world.” - text from artist’s statement
lolaaaa](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m147qnMjq41qb6jujo1_500.jpg)
Dean by Lola Flash from the [sur]passing series (2003)
“[sur]passing is […] a series of larger than life size color portraits that probe the impact skin pigmentation plays on black identity and consciousness. Primarily due to the melanin count of their skin, light and dark-skinned blacks opportunities can differ enormously ranging from overt favoritism to extreme alienation. Kobena Mercer coins this process as a “pigmentocracy” - based on skin-tone. This scandalous and often heart wrenching story line dates back to colonial America and it clearly perseveres today.
In [sur]passing the models are shot with a large format camera from towering urban vantage points, highlighting the re-generation of a new inner-city culture, they become divine, larger than the purposely out of focus buildings of the London, New York and South African skylines, in contrast to the sharp, crisp rendering of each subject. The subjects assertively return the gaze, without being confrontational and by hanging the four-foot by five-foot photographs above eye level, the viewer has no choice but to “look up” to these young people posed as if characters from a modern Shakespeare melodrama.
So, as the title [sur]passing suggests, these portraits represent a “new generation” - one that is above and beyond “passing”. We represent a fresh pride and strength; where ambiguity and blurred borders create an individuality that elevates consciousness and advances a plethora of complex and positive imagery of [black] people in the Diaspora and all over the world.” - text from artist’s statement
lolaaaa
(Source: yagazieemezi)
* does a lil dance * go EnFoco, go EnFoco, go EnFoco, go EnFoco
The art: Gran Fury, Kissing Doesn’t Kill: Greed and Indifference Do, 1989. The piece was ‘installed’ on New York City buses, a poster mounted on aluminum.
The news: “Chronicling AIDS activists’ darkest days: Harvard project collects an oral history,” by Martine Powers in the Boston Globe. The story discusses Harvard’s purchase of the oral history archive of ACT UP. Harvard’s involvement with the archive started via then-Harvard Art Museums curator Helen Molesworth, who curated this exhibition and who later helped initiate the acquisition. (Molesworth is now the chief curator of the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston). You can view the archive here.
The source: Collection of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, St. Louis; the New York Public Library; and Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
OPENING TODAY! Lola Flash retrospective, Sat Feb 20, 4-7pm @ Gordon Parks Gallery, College of New Rochelle, Bronx, NY
http://www.cnr.edu/Arts/GordonA.ParksGalleryandCulturalArtsCenter
