Xaviera Simmons djing at front of her installation “Selective Memory (How to Break Your Own Heart II)” created at Zacheta and Shaun EL C. Leonardo in performance “El Conquistador Vs. The Invisible Man”, 2006, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, photo: Joanna Kinowska.
black alphabet – conTEXTS of contemporary african-american art
黑子目标 - 非洲-美国当代艺术背景
9月22日至11月19日
策划人Maria Brewinska
地点：Zacheta National Gallery of Art
Pl. Malachowskiego 3
00-916 Warsaw, Poland
电话. ( 48 22) 827 58 54
网站：[url]http://www.zacheta.art.pl
黑子目标识第一次在欧洲展出的关于非洲-美国当代艺术的美国展览。
非洲-美国艺术是美国艺术的一个重要部分。不过除了美国之外，这个艺术没有真的被推广过。题目，黑子目标，是一种隐喻关于“黑”这个概念不明确的意义：关于种族的问题，尤其是关于非洲-美国人创造的文化语言。“非洲-美国当代艺术”这个题目也承担这个艺术的存在。它在美国当代艺术这个领域发展，而在这某一些政治和历史的情况下，有时候需要表达一个独立的身份。非洲-美国艺术是80年代开始进去主美国要美术馆，画廊，收藏。这个过程由后现代多文化开始。这个展览的社会-政治方面很重要。这个“其他者”语言在美国的文化，历史，社会，政治方面里都比较清楚。非洲-美国背景第一次在美国之外展出，在波兰。这个展览谈到很多主体，比如奴隶身份，种族主义和种族的概念，身份。还有与精力发展有关的波谱文化，包括hip-hop，还有非洲-美国的传统音乐。这个展览也会介绍一些新的背景像 “非洲化”， 新形象，美国黑人集体的暴力， 等等。
展览里包含84个作品。
参加艺术家：Laylah Ali, Edgar Arceneaux, John Bankston, Sanford Biggers, Mark Bradford, Michael Paul Britto, Nick Cave, Zoe Charlton, Leonardo Drew, Ellen Gallagher, Trenton Doyle Hancock, David Hammons, Leslie Hewitt, Shaun El C. Leonardo, Glenn Ligon, Kalup Linzy, Wardell Milan, Rodney McMillian, Lester Julian Merriweather, Kori Newkirk, Demetrius Oliver, Kambui Olujimi, Jefferson Pinder, Robert Pruitt, Lorna Simpson, Xaviera Simmons, Susan Smith-Pinelo,
Jeff Sonhouse, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Fred Wilson, Kehinde Wiley, Paula Wilson, Hank Willis Thomas, Jennifer Zackin
black alphabet – conTEXTS of contemporary african-american art
September 22 – November 19, 2006
Curator Maria Brewinska
Zacheta National Gallery of Art
Pl. Malachowskiego 3
00-916 Warsaw, Poland
tel. ( 48 22) 827 58 54
[url]http://www.zacheta.art.pl
Tuesdays - Sundays 12 noon - 8pm
We have just opened this great and successful exhibition accompanied by a series of enthusiastically received events created by a group of talented artists. You still have time to share in the experience…
black alphabet is the first presentation in Europe of a group exhibition from the USA focused on African American art, a highly significant component of American culture that at best is known only selectively, and at worst is absolutely unknown, on the `old continent`… The idea of the show came after the recognition of several important and powerful exhibitions of African American art organized over the past two decades. These resulted in the discovery and promotion of an art which today constitutes one of the most vital fields in American culture, but one that is still, however, known within the American context only. One should probably agree with bell hooks who perceives American multiculturalism as the mechanism that elevated African American culture to the national forum, but at the same time reduced it to the narrow dimension of nationalism – a cultural context developing within a single nation, rather than in the broader global context.
The title of the exhibition - black alphabet - should not be perceived literally or solely in linguistic terms. It is a metaphor conveying the ambiguity of the term black, which, while raising the race issue, here first and foremost refers to the cultural languages or texts formed by the identity of African Americans. The exhibition’s title also contains the term context, alongside the interconnected text, meant as a tool for diagnosing the dominant trends of the selected field within American art. The last component – contemporary African American art – assumes that such an art exists, that it has constituted itself within the national field of American art as a sub-national text, that in certain historical and political conditions there has occurred the possibility and necessity of expressing one’s separate identity within the national identity of America. That is why America speaks today with many texts at once.
The “atrophied white” aspect that Baudrillard discusses in his book “America” is not without significance if we confront it with the moment of African American art’s entrance to the primary circulation of American art (leading museums, galleries and collections) in the late 1980s. The process was initiated by postmodern multiculturalism, as part of which America’s cultural languages suddenly multiplied and acknowledgment was granted, not only to the African American context, but also to those created by all the Others constituting today’s America.
The presence of “black art” in public circulation (which does not mean a lack of continuity, only a change in status) undermined the “cultural racial order” of dominant white art. The new strategies brought into play by multiculturalism resulted in an opening towards all Others and, in effect, a challenging of the existing hierarchies in art, of “linguistic economy” and of representation. Thus, this art started speaking its own language determined by new contexts.
The exhibition that we are showing at Zacheta has an important socio-political dimension, not only because America is the world’s dominant geopolitical power and thus, today, an immensely important political fact, but chiefly because of its many cultural contexts. Of these multiple contexts, we have chosen to present perhaps the most problematic. The cultural, historical, and socio-political circumstances of this “other” language of America are in a way clear, but a question could be asked about the rationale of organizing an exhibition devoted uniquely to the “black alphabet”: is it really instituted by other letters constituting other texts; how to read this alphabet and its texts; and can it be identified within the multitextual mass of America? The concept of the alphabet makes it possible to perform a symbolic separation in the field that we simply call “contemporary American art”, the creative conglomerate of various cultures coexisting within a single nation, in order to extract from it the African American component: one long repressed and little known outside America, one now recognized as a whole, and to a lesser extent one also gaining recognition through its parts that themselves proliferate new alphabets, languages, texts, etc.…
The context of African American art is presented for the first time outside the United States, and, what is more, in Poland. This caused an understandable anxiety given that we are undertaking this challenge from the perspective of a homogenous, non-differentiated country that knows neither racial difference nor racial discourse to the degree manifested in the US. A need, however, exists to present an alternative to the homogeneity and domination of so-called universal values that are only seemingly good for everyone. In today’s differentiated world such notions seem to have become meaningless and instead act as a symbol for forcing the values of one culture or race onto others. The domination of a single context can, therefore, be a symptom of oppression. That is why we have made this exhibition.
The black alphabet exhibition presents the leading contexts and, through them, the comprehensive nature of African American art, an art which consists of many heterogeneous voices and attitudes, and encompasses various concepts and subjects of artistic, social and political significance, alongside the interconnected issues of language, words, texts, and collectiv
black alphabet – conTEXTS of contemporary african-american art
黑子目标 - 非洲-美国当代艺术背景
9月22日至11月19日
策划人Maria Brewinska
地点：Zacheta National Gallery of Art
Pl. Malachowskiego 3
00-916 Warsaw, Poland
电话. ( 48 22) 827 58 54
网站：[url]http://www.zacheta.art.pl
黑子目标识第一次在欧洲展出的关于非洲-美国当代艺术的美国展览。
非洲-美国艺术是美国艺术的一个重要部分。不过除了美国之外，这个艺术没有真的被推广过。题目，黑子目标，是一种隐喻关于“黑”这个概念不明确的意义：关于种族的问题，尤其是关于非洲-美国人创造的文化语言。“非洲-美国当代艺术”这个题目也承担这个艺术的存在。它在美国当代艺术这个领域发展，而在这某一些政治和历史的情况下，有时候需要表达一个独立的身份。非洲-美国艺术是80年代开始进去主美国要美术馆，画廊，收藏。这个过程由后现代多文化开始。这个展览的社会-政治方面很重要。这个“其他者”语言在美国的文化，历史，社会，政治方面里都比较清楚。非洲-美国背景第一次在美国之外展出，在波兰。这个展览谈到很多主体，比如奴隶身份，种族主义和种族的概念，身份。还有与精力发展有关的波谱文化，包括hip-hop，还有非洲-美国的传统音乐。这个展览也会介绍一些新的背景像 “非洲化”， 新形象，美国黑人集体的暴力， 等等。
展览里包含84个作品。
参加艺术家：Laylah Ali, Edgar Arceneaux, John Bankston, Sanford Biggers, Mark Bradford, Michael Paul Britto, Nick Cave, Zoe Charlton, Leonardo Drew, Ellen Gallagher, Trenton Doyle Hancock, David Hammons, Leslie Hewitt, Shaun El C. Leonardo, Glenn Ligon, Kalup Linzy, Wardell Milan, Rodney McMillian, Lester Julian Merriweather, Kori Newkirk, Demetrius Oliver, Kambui Olujimi, Jefferson Pinder, Robert Pruitt, Lorna Simpson, Xaviera Simmons, Susan Smith-Pinelo,
Jeff Sonhouse, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Fred Wilson, Kehinde Wiley, Paula Wilson, Hank Willis Thomas, Jennifer Zackin
black alphabet – conTEXTS of contemporary african-american art
September 22 – November 19, 2006
Curator Maria Brewinska
Zacheta National Gallery of Art
Pl. Malachowskiego 3
00-916 Warsaw, Poland
tel. ( 48 22) 827 58 54
[url]http://www.zacheta.art.pl
Tuesdays - Sundays 12 noon - 8pm
We have just opened this great and successful exhibition accompanied by a series of enthusiastically received events created by a group of talented artists. You still have time to share in the experience…
black alphabet is the first presentation in Europe of a group exhibition from the USA focused on African American art, a highly significant component of American culture that at best is known only selectively, and at worst is absolutely unknown, on the `old continent`… The idea of the show came after the recognition of several important and powerful exhibitions of African American art organized over the past two decades. These resulted in the discovery and promotion of an art which today constitutes one of the most vital fields in American culture, but one that is still, however, known within the American context only. One should probably agree with bell hooks who perceives American multiculturalism as the mechanism that elevated African American culture to the national forum, but at the same time reduced it to the narrow dimension of nationalism – a cultural context developing within a single nation, rather than in the broader global context.
The title of the exhibition - black alphabet - should not be perceived literally or solely in linguistic terms. It is a metaphor conveying the ambiguity of the term black, which, while raising the race issue, here first and foremost refers to the cultural languages or texts formed by the identity of African Americans. The exhibition’s title also contains the term context, alongside the interconnected text, meant as a tool for diagnosing the dominant trends of the selected field within American art. The last component – contemporary African American art – assumes that such an art exists, that it has constituted itself within the national field of American art as a sub-national text, that in certain historical and political conditions there has occurred the possibility and necessity of expressing one’s separate identity within the national identity of America. That is why America speaks today with many texts at once.
The “atrophied white” aspect that Baudrillard discusses in his book “America” is not without significance if we confront it with the moment of African American art’s entrance to the primary circulation of American art (leading museums, galleries and collections) in the late 1980s. The process was initiated by postmodern multiculturalism, as part of which America’s cultural languages suddenly multiplied and acknowledgment was granted, not only to the African American context, but also to those created by all the Others constituting today’s America.
The presence of “black art” in public circulation (which does not mean a lack of continuity, only a change in status) undermined the “cultural racial order” of dominant white art. The new strategies brought into play by multiculturalism resulted in an opening towards all Others and, in effect, a challenging of the existing hierarchies in art, of “linguistic economy” and of representation. Thus, this art started speaking its own language determined by new contexts.
The exhibition that we are showing at Zacheta has an important socio-political dimension, not only because America is the world’s dominant geopolitical power and thus, today, an immensely important political fact, but chiefly because of its many cultural contexts. Of these multiple contexts, we have chosen to present perhaps the most problematic. The cultural, historical, and socio-political circumstances of this “other” language of America are in a way clear, but a question could be asked about the rationale of organizing an exhibition devoted uniquely to the “black alphabet”: is it really instituted by other letters constituting other texts; how to read this alphabet and its texts; and can it be identified within the multitextual mass of America? The concept of the alphabet makes it possible to perform a symbolic separation in the field that we simply call “contemporary American art”, the creative conglomerate of various cultures coexisting within a single nation, in order to extract from it the African American component: one long repressed and little known outside America, one now recognized as a whole, and to a lesser extent one also gaining recognition through its parts that themselves proliferate new alphabets, languages, texts, etc.…
The context of African American art is presented for the first time outside the United States, and, what is more, in Poland. This caused an understandable anxiety given that we are undertaking this challenge from the perspective of a homogenous, non-differentiated country that knows neither racial difference nor racial discourse to the degree manifested in the US. A need, however, exists to present an alternative to the homogeneity and domination of so-called universal values that are only seemingly good for everyone. In today’s differentiated world such notions seem to have become meaningless and instead act as a symbol for forcing the values of one culture or race onto others. The domination of a single context can, therefore, be a symptom of oppression. That is why we have made this exhibition.
The black alphabet exhibition presents the leading contexts and, through them, the comprehensive nature of African American art, an art which consists of many heterogeneous voices and attitudes, and encompasses various concepts and subjects of artistic, social and political significance, alongside the interconnected issues of language, words, texts, and collectiv
这年头，０回复的出现是懒惰！是耻辱！是变态！是典型的对沙发的漠视！是对ＢＢＳ暴力丑态的不作为！
我是职业顶贴的帅哥！
大家伙儿都很喜欢我！
我们的理想是————消灭O回复！！！
