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Candice a Hard Lin White Body A. “We demand the right to opacity.” 2017, paint on windows, soap, calcium carbonate, in situ. B. A Hard White Body 2017, stoneware urinal, pipes, distillation system, bricks, buckets, water from the Seine river, urine, A D plants, porcelain, wood, plastic sheets, misting system. B The French title; “Un corps blanc exquis”, refers to the description of porcelain made by the French missionary Fr. d’Entrecolles in a report that he wrote following missions in China and India. In a 1712 letter, he described extensively the fabrication process of this object of Western desire, thus allowing for its reproduction in Europe. C. The Beloved, 2017, video, 12’ loop. D. The Wake, Under Construction 2017, bricks, porcelain, wood, cardboard, books, photographs, paper, plants and their derivatives as included in the list Jeanne Baret may have written, and alcohol as referenced in James Baldwin’s B Giovanni’s Room. A D 08. A reproduction of a watercolor drawing depicting C Louis-Antoine de Bougainville’s expedition, 01. An excerpt from an early draft the first French circum- of a biographical sketch written by navigation of the globe, James Baldwin, wherein he discusses arriving on Tahiti in 1768. the significance of his metaphor of the Bougainville claimed Tahiti sea and what it means to undergo a “sea for the French and named it B change,” as he writes in Giovanni’s Nouvelle-Cythère. A Tahitian A D Room. named Aotourou joined the James Baldwin Papers, SC MG 936, Box 1, expedition on board Folder 4, Schomburg Center for Research La Boudeuse (C), becoming the in Black Culture, Harlem, New York. first Tahitian to visit Europe. Jeanne Baret and B 02. These pages in Christina Sharpe’s Philibert Commerson traveled book In the Wake describe the mass in the other ship, killing of 132 African slaves, thrown L’Étoile (D). overboard and drowned in a calculated Credit: Bibliothèque action by the Gregson slave-trading nationale de France (Paris). company in order to make an insurance claim. This came to light in the 09. Pages excerpted from resulting court case, Gregson v. Gilbert Glynis Ridley’s The Discovery B (1783), and has been written about by of Jeanne Baret. In this Fred D’Aguiar, in his book Feeding the passage, Ridley describes Ghosts (1997) and by M. NourbeSe Philip, the equatorial rite of in her book of poems, Zong! (2008), passage, “Crossing the Line,” in which which Sharpe analyzes. new sailors are dunked in a pool of dirt Sharpe, Christina, In the Wake: On by more seasoned sailors, dressed as Blackness and Being, Durham and London: “devils” (“darkened with soot or tar, 13. Emollient cream made from made from Duke University Press, 2016, 34-35. and decorated with feathers”). plants listed in the previous document. Ridley, Glynis. The Discovery of Jeanne 03. In his essay “Take Me to The Water” Baret. New York: Broadway Paperbacks / 14. Candice Lin, 2017, porcelain. James Baldwin describes the noticeable Random House, 2010. 86-88. absence of Algerians upon his return to 15. Cacao pod. Paris in 1961, and the rumors of their 10. Candice Lin, 2017, porcelain. torture, detainment, and murder. 16. Candice Lin, 2017, graphite on Baldwin, James. Collected Essays. New 11. Candice Lin, 2017, watercolor paper. York: Penguin Random House, 1998. on paper. 374-375. The artist’s reimagining of the naval, 17. Photograph of a box of plant Baldwin, James. Chassés de la lumière. equatorial “Crossing of the Line” material and accompanying plant samples Paris: Ypsilon, 2015, translated from ritual, based on various engravings gathered by the Tropical Agronomy the English by Magali Berger. 44-45. and photographs depicting the evolution Garden in Paris for use in French public of this ritual from the 18th century schools, ca. 1950. 04. An excerpt from a letter written by onwards. These tools were part of the educational Sol Stein to James Baldwin. arm of the colonial system, teaching the James Baldwin Papers, SC MG 936, Box 3b, 12. A list of plants possibly written diversity of commodities produced in the Folder 50, Schomburg Center for Research by Jeanne Baret, found in the archives colonies and highlighting the riches of in Black Culture, Harlem, New York. of Philibert Commerson, at the Muséum the French empire. national d’histoire naturelle. Jeanne Credit: CIRAD Historical library. 05. Candice Lin, 2017, ink on paper. Baret suffered chronic skin rash due to binding her breasts and may have 18. Candice Lin, 2017, watercolor and used these plants for their emollient gouache on paper. 06. Candice Lin, 2017, porcelain. properties. Drawing of tobacco leaves infected with Table des plantes médicamenteuses, Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV). In the 19th 07. A postcard from Alex Haley to James 18th century, manuscript. National century, racialized accounts of the Baldwin (addressed to Baldwin and his Museum of Natural History - Paris, disease described the plants as “going sister). Department of Collections, Central mulatto.” Lin transposes this James Baldwin Papers, SC MG 936, Box 3a, Library, Ms 884. description in her drawing by giving Folder 18, Schomburg Center for Research Credit: MNHN (Paris), Direction des the leaves human profiles. in Black Culture, Harlem, New York. bibliothèques. 1 5 13 15 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 16 17 18 CANDICE 06/09 — 23/12/2017 A HARD LIN UN CORPS BLANC EXQUIS WHITE BODY COMMISSARIAT — CURATED BY: LOTTE ARNDT & LUCAS MORIN BÉTONSALON — CENTER FOR ART AND RESEARCH 19 20 21 22 23 22 24 25 24 26 27 28 29 24 30 31 32 19. Candice Lin, 2017, ink on paper. 23. Top: James Baldwin’s sketches 28. This page of William Burton’s book Charles Chamberland (1851-1908), an of various possible arrangements of Porcelain (London: B.T. Batsford, 1906. associate of Louis Pasteur, is credited furniture in his future apartment. 86-87), reproduces the letters of Père with developing this filter. In this Bottom: A detail from a letter from d’Entrecolles (translated from the drawing, a porcelain bar inserted into James Baldwin’s lawyer, negotiating French by the author) describing the a glass boiler flask filters bacteria an apartment lease in New York that “bones” and the “flesh” of porcelain. from a solution. Use of the porcelain was denied either due to the landlord’s filter in studies of the Tobacco Mosaic objection to renting to two “bachelors” 29. Lettre du Père d’Entrecolles au Père Virus revealed that viruses were a class or because “a professional apartment Orry, 1er septembre 1712, in Ed. M. L. of beings separate from bacteria and status would be impossible for Mr. Aimé-Martin, Lettres édifiantes et cu- gave rise to the birth of virology. Baldwin because he was a writer.” rieuses concernant l’Asie, l’Afrique et James Baldwin Papers, Box 1, Folder 14 l’Amérique. Paris: Société du Panthéon 20. Candice Lin, 2017, porcelain. & 17, Schomburg Center for Research in Littéraire, 1843. Vol. 3. 208-211. Black Culture, Harlem, New York. 21. A photograph of bricks from the 30. Hortense Spillers’s classic essay, Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, the 24. Candice Lin, 2017, porcelain and “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Bao-ensi (Temple of Repaid Gratitude), acrylic. Grammar Book,” reprinted here for the an octagonal pagoda constructed during concept of ungendered and racialized the Ming Dynasty, measuring nine stories 25. Candice Lin, 2017, graphite on “captive flesh”. Diacritics. Vol. 17, No. high (261 ft.), made of porcelain and paper. 2, Summer, 1987. 67. destroyed in 1856 during the Taiping Drawing based on a photograph of James Rebellion. The bricks pictured are made Baldwin in Istanbul, taken by Sedat 31. Weheliye, Alexander G. Habeas of porcelain with white glaze. Pakay, 1966. Viscus. Racializing Assemblages, They measure 5 ¾” x 3” x 10 ½” (14.6 x Biopolitics, and Black Feminist Theories 7.6 x 26.7 cm) and were a gift of 26. Candice Lin, 2017, porcelain. of the Human. Durham and London: Duke E.J. Smithers in 1889 to the Met- University Press, 2014. 39. ropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 27. An excerpt describing James Baldwin’s encounter with a magician 32. An excerpt from Edmund de Waal’s 22. Baldwin, James. Giovanni’s Room. New named Morgan in Turkey, where Baldwin book The White Road. New York: Farrar, York: Delta Books, 1956, reprint 2000. was badly beaten. Straus and Giroux, 2015. 8. 122-124. Leeming, David. James Baldwin: A Baldwin, James. La chambre de Giovanni. Biography. New York: Arcade Publishing, Paris: Payot & Rivage, 1956, reprint reprint 2015. 266-267. 1998, translated from the English by Élisabeth Guinsbourg. 85-87. 35 35 33 34 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 33. Seeds of Turraea floribunda, a 38. Candice Lin, 2017, watercolor on 45. Ridley, Glynis. The Discovery plant of the same family as Turraea paper. of Jeanne Baret. New York: Broadway Heterophylla. The artist’s recreation of an Paperbacks / Random House, 2010. illuminated manuscript of Alexander’s 100-101. 34. Candice Lin, 2017, colored pencil Romance depicting the burning of two and ballpoint pen on paper. “wild men” and a “wild woman.” 46. Candice Lin, 2017, watercolor on paper. A drawing of the plant Philibert 39. Candice Lin, 2017, porcelain. Commerson attempted to name Baretia 47. Candice Lin, 2017, porcelain and bonafidia in Jeanne Baret’s honor. 40. Candice Lin, 2017, porcelain. bougainvillea plant. Commerson expressed that the plant’s many different shaped leaves reminded 41. A draft co-written by James Baldwin him of Baret. This plant, however, was and Bobby Seale (dated 1975) proposing already claimed in European taxonomy a published dialogue on a tentative list All texts have been translated by as Turraea Heterophylla and had been of topics, including Eldridge Cleaver’s Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, used in West Africa to treat erectile new found Christianity, Angela Davis except when stated otherwise.
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