A Seat In conversation with Joseph, pulling up a chair next to Nzinga, Rosa, Shirley, and Solange

2017

Video Performance

Duration: 3 minutes

Previous Exhibitions of this project:

2020, Solo exhibition at Auburn University's Biggins Gallery, Auburn, AL (traveling show)

2020, Solo exhibition at Northeastern University, Boston, MA (traveling show)

2017, Hamiltonian Gallery, Washing, DC

Description:

This video performance is part of my Refiguring the Canon series, and begins my inquiry into the chair as a power and status symbol, which becomes a reoccurring theme in my practice. Citing and then remixing the conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth's 1970s definition of a chair, and also nodding to a roster of Black women throughout history -- Queen Nzinga, activist Rosa Parks, politician Shirley Chisholm, and singer Solange Knowles -- this work considers the poetic complexities of how seats have been used for and against people over generations.