Black Is, Black Ain't

In Spite of the acknowledgment of race as a biological fiction, it remains a social fact, in which one is still defined by the color of their skin. Black Is, Black, Ain’t, curated by Hamza Walker, examines a moment in contemporary culture in which race is simultaneously retained and rejected. Both in and outside the art world attempts to transcend issues of race have been made, however the more they try to be less race conscious the more race conscious it becomes. Issues of race have occupied a narrow space within the discourse of art and have been restricted to artists of color. In his introduction Hamza suggests that an exhibition of all African- American artists no longer passes for one of race, therefore unlike its predecessors Black Is, Black Ain’t brings together the work of twenty seven artists of multiple races in a more balanced effort to critically dissect issues of race.
Jason Lazarus’s photograph, Standing at the Grave of Emmitt Till the Day of Exumination, becomes symbolic of the exhibitions overall attempt to reopen past representations of race. Black Is, Black Ain’t problematizes the skins ability to signify difference within contemporary culture. In her video, To Think Things You Don’t Want To, Swedish artist Johanna Rytel weaves a complex love story, which appears to be a seamless account of one “white” woman’s obsession and love for her “black” lover. In this video a young women openly shares her inner prejudices and desires for the “other”. Statements such as, “ when you wear white you become more black,” reiterate issues of difference based on skin color. Rytel is one of several artists who begin to not only explore blackness but also raise issues of “whiteness.”
Another overwhelming theme within the exhibition is the re-examining of modernist notions. In his appropriation, For Whom the Bell Curves, Robert A Pruitt, depicts slave trade routes between Africa, North and South America using simple gold chains pinned on a wall in zigzagging arcs creating a map of repression out of “bling.” Pruitt rereads the ready-made, for which Duchamp notably used to challenge traditional ideals of genius and discuss aesthetics, as an object loaded with symbolism. For Whom the Bell Curves is a precise abstraction complicated with unsettled race relations. For his installation, One Substance, Eight Supports, One Situation, William Pope. L places eight different colored shelves throughout the gallery space and places a small cone of flour on top of each respectively. Over time the small flour cones begin to crumble apart as people walk by, taking remnants of the powder with them. The flour cones become a metaphor for the way in which power is dispersed and comments upon “whiteness.” Through use of the formalist aesthetic Pope L, turns formalism into a loaded vessel.
Black Is, Black Ain’t also explores the inextricable link between race and class. The photographs of Cabrini Green and the Robert Taylor Homes by Paul D’Amato and Jonathon Calm, suggest that race is produced through the structure of inequality. Rodney McMillan’s, Chair, also comments on issues of race and class. The found overstuffed chair, which is worn and broken, becomes extremely loaded within the context of the exhibition, referencing poverty, loss, and abandonment.
Black Is, Black Ain’t is a reinvestigation of issues race that have been unresolved thus far and suggests that in order to dissect issues of race we must begin with the society and histories which have created them. Walker states, “blackness, bluntly begs that a distinction be made between race as a basis of discrimination on the one hand, and solidarity as it is sought by a group racially defined on the other. The latter might sound like a mise en abyme of sorts, in which the category creates the category effect, but it is more a domino effect, where a socially reproducible pattern acquires and inertia resulting in a concept that becomes its own cause, and effect.” In the end race is a thorny subject that will never truly be resolved, however Black Is, Black Ain’t brings to our attention that race is still a very real issue.