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Nicole Buchanan, DG 14. Gift of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston

Defying the Shadow

December 1, 2020 - December 18, 2021
Nicole Buchanan, DG 14. Gift of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston

Introduction

Defying the Shadow presents images by Black artists and of Black figures that resist the consumptive impulses of looking. As anti-portraits or visages that challenge the viewer’s desire to know, comprehend, categorize, or easily define, these works oppose a historical narrative of dispossession and domination that continues to violate the humanity of marginalized people.

Black presence(s) in public space should not be seen or signaled as radical. There often is, however, an implicit expectation that art made by Black makers explain itself to wider audiences. Resisting the practice of claiming an institutional voice that is steeped in imperial knowing, this show provides very few labels. This decision seeks to minimize the replication of oppression through the voyeuristic pleasure aligned with systems of exploitative purveyorship.

Defying the Shadow examines how Black subjects operate in and against modern political systems, which keep them under constant surveillance and risk of violence. This show considers the “defiant” body not only as a site of possibility, but also a challenge to authoritative systems of knowing, including the white-supremacist function of the traditional gaze. Beginning with Sojourner Truth’s abolitionist portraits stamped with the slogan “I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance,” the assembled works-ranging from 19th-century photographs to contemporary prints-focus on the appearance of shadows in formal and metaphorical settings.

Curated by Anita N. Bateman, PhD

Former Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow

Prints, Drawings, and Photographs

RISD Museum

Exhibition graphics by Jada Akoto (RISD BFA 2022, Graphic Design) inspired by Victor Ekpuk

Shadows, RISD Museum’s 14th issue of Manual, is a companion to this exhibition. Copies can be purchased at the museum entrance, with related proceeds being donated to the RI Solidarity Fund. The full issue can also be downloaded at no charge by people who identify as Black, of Black African descent, or members of the African diaspora.

won’t you celebrate with me

won't you celebrate with me

what i have shaped into

a kind of life? i had no model.

born in babylon

both nonwhite and woman

what did i see to be except myself?

i made it up

here on this bridge between

starshine and clay,

my one hand holding tight

my other hand; come celebrate

with me that everyday

something has tried to kill me

and has failed.

-Lucille Clifton

Anita Bateman

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Publications

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 14: Shadows

This anti-visibility is not the same as being invisible, rather it is the power to operate against systems of imperial domination, including the gaze. It asks: How do we force the gaze to surrender? What if explanation were off the table? By enabling a petit marronage that can be expressed in the visual and symbolic use of shadow, the gaze is challenged.

Related Objects

Unknown Maker, American

Untitled

Carrie Mae Weems

When and Where I Enter The British Museum

Adrian Piper

Food for the Spirit

Fred Wilson

X

Paul Meleschnig

Untitled

Adrian Piper

My Calling (Card) #2 (Reactive Guerilla Performance for Bars and Discos)
  • More objects +

Defying the Shadow

December 1, 2020 - December 18, 2021
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