Black Artists Retreat August 21 - 23, 2014
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[B.A.R.] BLACK ARTISTS RETREAT AUGUST 21 - 23, 2014 Hosted by Theaster Gates, Carrie Mae Weems, Sarah Workneh & Eliza Myrie Thursday, AUGUST 21 6918 S. Dorchester Ave 6.30 pm Welcome! ROLE Call Screening w/ Arthur Jafa: Dreams are Colder Than Death 10 pm Shuttles to Hotel Felix and Public Hotel begin Friday, AUGUST 22 7200 S. Kimbark Ave 9.30 am Light breakfast 10 am MODE OF ADDRESS: intersections of queerness and feminism in black art noon Lunch/Break/Group Photo 1.30 pm The Past Is Present: Black Artists and the Issue of Abstraction 5 pm Shuttles to Retreat, Valerie Carberry/Richard Gray Gallery HTMAH, Arts Incubator Gallery 6.30 pm Currency Exchange Cafe, 305 E Garfield Blvd 8 pm Toast & Dinner REVELRY! 9 pm Shuttles to Hotel Felix and Public Hotel begin 1 am Good Night Saturday, AUGUST 23 6918 S Dorchester Ave Welcome! 10.30 am Light breakfast and office hours ROLE Call Screening w/ Arthur Jafa: Dreams are Colder Than Death Inside-out/Outside-in: Black Cultural Producers, Privilege, and Margins Is Your House In Order? B.A.R. edition The Black Lunchtable Presents Mass Observation: Historical Enactments Story of Belgian Copal: the role of Belgian Congo Copal in the History of mid-20th century Painting Gallery Presence…Why, When, Which, and How? Thinking about Criticism 1 pm Walk to 7200 S. Kimbark Ave 1.30 pm DECOMPRESS 4 pm fin! Inside-out/Outside-in: Black Cultural Producers, Privilege, and Margins Misa Dayson Black artists and cultural producers in the 21st century find ourselves in a unique and paradoxical situation: We inhabit a privileged position in society, while continuing to face systemic marginalization and racism in our elite spaces. While we recognize and experience continued practices of marginalization in spaces of cultural production, are we simultaneously aware of how we are also implicated in marginalizing practices? This panel attempts to serve as a laboratory for putting theory into practice with regards to living a materially sustainable and equitable creative life. Heavily informed by conversations with, and/or work produced by Sonia Elizabeth Barrett, Roderick Ferguson, Jodi Melamed, and James Baldwin, to name a few, during this session we first investigate the question of whose interests are served when, in the words of Barrett, “ we create art in a way that sustains others...but not ourselves”?1 By focusing disproportionately on issues of representation in the art world, are we unwittingly disconnecting from, and dismantling the WORKSHOPS momentum of, those working to change the socio-economic issues that inevitably inform our work? We will use this time to discuss and workshop ways in which we can connect our artistic practices to social justice issues in ways that allow for a transformative envisioning of living in a more socially equitable world. 1 Sonia Elizabeth Barrett,“Creating Space for Evolution,” in The Little Book of Big Visions: How to be an Artist and Revolutionize the World. Pp. 143. Berlin: Edition Assemblage Is Your House In Order? B.A.R. edition Pamela Council So many people die without having a plan in writing for how their material and intellectual possessions will be cared for. This is especially troubling for cultural producers. Inspired by the Reebok x Basquiat collection, Michael Jackson’s posthumous album, and James Brown’s ongoing final show, Is Your House In Order? welcomes you to stop by and start the difficult conversation about how your possessions and work will live on beyond your time here on Earth. Have you started to think about a plan? Worksheets will be provided. The Past Is Present: Black Artists and the Issue of Abstraction Dawoud Bey The historical erasure and mischaracterization of the works of black artists choosing to work within the construct of formalist and abstract paradigms has had many recent and early iterations. Numerous exhibitions over the years have sought to serve as a corrective to this disappearing of black artists from these discourses, including April Kingsley’s seminal ‘Afro- American Abstraction’ at PS 1 in 1981 to the recent exhibition ‘Outside the Lines,’ curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston in 2014. And still the tepid critical response and lack of substantive discourse continues, though its existence is periodically “heralded,” as in a recent ARTnews article “The Changing Complex Profile of Black Abstract Painters (ARTnews June 2014). This roundtable panel brings together artists of varying generations to examine the varied histories and genealogies at the root of their diverse practices, and the responses to these practices. They will be joined by art historians and curators for a conversation on the histories, methods, and critical reception of black artists working within this area and other less clearly racialized modalities, while contemplating the histories—past, present and future—of abstraction as a broad heuristic frame. Or as Maren Hassinger recently asked me, “Not all of my work is abstract, but much of it is not about being black, which I guess is a form of abstraction?” Roundtable Participants Dawoud Bey, Chair/Organizer Facilitators/Readers Huey Copeland Adrienne Edwards Panelists Torkwase Dyson Jennie C. Jones Maren Hassinger Richard Hunt Tameka Norris William Villalongo MODE OF ADDRESS: intersections of queerness and feminism in black art Aay Preston-Myint The goal of Mode of Address is to destabilize, expand, and reimagine representations and performances of blackness in art through the lens of queer theory/experience and feminism. Through this panel, we will build energy and open lines of communication in order to interrogate the self and the community as gendered subjects, racial subjects and, sexualized subjects with greater sensitivity and criticality. Building off of last year’s gathering, we will continue to construct black art as an intersectional cultural form as opposed to monolithic one. The panel will consist of an introductory conversation between the artists to be followed by a short question period and smaller breakout groups. Facilitators/Readers Aay Preston-Myint Panelists Rashayla Marie Brown Darrell Jones WORKSHOPS Ayanah Moor Amina Ross Story of Belgian Copal: the role of Belgian Congo Copal in the History of mid-20th Century Painting Vincent Johnson From 1942 to 1970, the Permanent Pigments company in Cincinnati commercially produced Frederic Taubes copal painting medium, which this artist and inventor thought replicated the remarkable media employed by the Flemish masters. During the first half of the 20th century and beyond, “The highest grade for paint and varnish manufacture was Congo copal.” From the onset of colonial control, copal was mined at a spectacular level along with other natural resources of the Congo. Belgian Congo copal resin found markets and application not only in Western art suppliers, but in vast international commercial enterprises such as varnish, protective coatings and commercial house paint. Story of Belgian Copal provides the details. The Black Lunchtable Presents Mass Observation: Historical Enactments Heather Hart and Jina Valentine Heather Hart and Jina Valentine’s performance-based project The Black Lunch Table has taken many forms since its inauguration at Skowhegan in 2005. For [B.A.R.], our collective history writing event will take place around a metaphorical lunch table. We seek to democratize the (re) writing of history by animating discourse among the people who lived it, in an effort to record a comprehensive and idiomatic (art)historical account. It is our aim that our collective effort will enrich the historical and art historical record (on Wikipedia and other online archives) with oral histories, testimonials, and first hand accounts of artworks experienced, artists encountered, and exhibitions viewed. Four Keynote dialogues will punctuate this event: 10:30 – Dawoud Bey and Sonia Davis 11:15 – Lisa Dent and Hank Willis Thomas 12:00 – Carrie Mae Weems and Latoya Ruby Frazier 12.45 – Huey Copeland and William Villalongo. Additional, curated dialogues will take place during these times; all are invited to contribute to these critical discussions. Our wikipedia editing station will be open throughout the weekend of [B.A.R.] Everyone is invited to update or add pages for other [B.A.R.] attendees! Gallery Presence…Why, When, Which, and How? Kambui Olujimi As the alchemy of courting and negotiating a gallery presence is a well- kept secret and no one route is ever taken, the various journeys are rarely discussed. Gallery Presence... will explore four main topics of the artist/ gallery relationship through the individual experiences of four panelists. 1 – Why: What can a gallery offer beyond revenue? 2 – When: What are the factors that informs one’s decision to enter or avoid gallery markets? 3 – Which: What concerns and considerations influence the creation of a “good fit” between artist and gallery? 4 – How: How are galleries introduced to new artists? What are some of the points of evaluation both for the gallery and the artist? Dawoud Bey is an artist and professor of art and Distinguished College Artist at Columbia College Chicago. His works have been exhibited internationally, and are included in the collections of institutions throughout the United States and Europe including the Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Modern Art (NY), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim Museum, The Addison Gallery of American Art, the National Portrait Gallery (London) and others. His essays on contemporary art and its place within institutional and social practice have appeared in various catalogues and publications including Third Text, High Times Hard Times: New York Painting, 1967-1975 as well as online at Artnet.com. His seminal essay ‘David Hammons: In the Spirit of Minkisi’ (Third Text, 1993) was the first to place this artist’s work within the framework of West African cosmological practice, moving beyond the Duchampian references through which this artist’s work had been viewed.