Dancing Free I
2020 - Painting (Painting)
54.25 x 36.5 inches
Jarrett Key
Jarrett Key’s practice combines several modes of production into a single frame, incorporating sculpture, painting, and performance. Dancing Free I , painted in wet cement, like a fresco, is part of a current series of paintings titled Leaving the City , which depicts Black people they know in lush, pastoral landscapes. Raised in rural Alabama, Key’s series grew out of a few experiments conducted with visitors to their studio. “I ask them to close their eyes and imagine a Black person in an environment. They—predominantly white artists, curators, and educators—imagine Black bodies in urban spaces, landscapes defined by cement,” Key explains. The resulting works, as in Dancing Free I, are a celebratory image of dance and movement made in defiance to the cement and the limited spaces where Black people appear in the imagination of others. With Dancing Free I , Key aims to challenge stereotypes of how Black leisure may appear. It depicts a figure in a blue gown in a magnificent field of wildflowers with overhanging pines. The Southern Longleaf Pine, Alabama’s state tree, is incorporated into the composition, inspired by the southern countryside. The faint blue color is reminiscent of the paint used to cover verandas in the south, distinguished by its resemblance to a clear blue sky. If an unwelcome ghost attempts to enter your home and your ceiling is a dark blue color, the spirit is said to gaze up and believe they see the sky and cross over.
Jarrett Key’s work addresses their concerns about the state of their freedom in America. By excavating lost stories and objects from their family’s oral history in rural Alabama, Key explores their journey to understanding freedom through three lenses: survival, transformation, and celebration. Key’s work emphasizes multiple threads critical to weaving together the legacies and pressures historicized on the Black body, such as Key’s own quotidian life realities and the fantastical escapes and futures they conjure. Key’s work seeks to criticize the historical circumstances that have sown the seeds of America’s current social and economic problems.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Miguel and Natalia Fernández de Castro and Mendoza
2022The Absolute Restoration of All Things is a collaboration by artist Miguel Fernández de Castro and anthropologist Natalia Mendoza...
© » KADIST
Sabelo Mlangeni
2019The Royal House of Allure is a name of a safe house on mainland Lagos where members of the queer community in need of boarding, due to various circumstances, live together...
© » KADIST
James Weeks
1962Both Head-Portrait with Red and Blue Background and Man with Blue Tie are classic examples of Weeks’ deftness of line, shape, and color...
© » KADIST
Rachel Rose
2019First Born by Rachel Rose is part of a series of works titled Borns which expands on the artist’s longstanding interest in the organic shape of eggs...
© » KQED
Charles Lee at SF Camerawork: Black Cowboys and Their Horses | KQED Skip to Nav Skip to Main Skip to Footer The Do List SF Camerawork Show Honors the Relationship Between Black Cowboys and Their Horses Nia Coats Dec 13 Save Article Save Article Failed to save article Please try again Facebook Share-FB Twitter Share-Twitter Email Share-Email Copy Link Copy Link An installation view of Charles Lee's show 'sweat + dirt' at SF Camerawork...
© » KADIST
Amie Siegel
2005Berlin Remake ( 2005) combines extracts of East German films with images filmed by the artist in Berlin...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Siapa Nama Kamu? – Questions to Answer a Friend | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Photo: Via Artsy.net September 13, 2019 By Syed Muhammad Hafiz (1,823 words, 7-minute read) Recently I was asked by a friend, “How come I don’t see any local Malay artists in the current show at National Gallery Singapore (NGS)?”...
© » SLASH PARIS
Marc Desgrandchamps — Silhouettes — Musée d'Art Contemporain [mac], Marseille — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Marc Desgrandchamps — Silhouettes — Musée d'Art Contemporain [mac], Marseille — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Marc Desgrandchamps — Silhouettes Exhibition Painting Marc Desgrandchamps, Sans Titre, 2015 (détail) Huile sur toile — 162 × 130 cm Courtesy de l’artiste et galerie Lelong & Co...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Austrian singer collaborates with ‘angklung’ musicians at Indonesian Cultural Night in Vienna (via The Jakarta Post) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar July 10, 2018 Angklung musicians featuring Austrian soprano Maria Theresia Gruber staged the song Bengawan Solo at the Indonesian Cultural Night event held at Vienna’s Weltmuseum on Tuesday evening...
© » KADIST
Taysir Batniji
2006Fathers #18 and Fathers #27 is part of a series of photographs and videos made in recent years in Gaza...
© » KADIST
Nalini Malani
2012Malani draws upon her personal experience of the violent legacy of colonialism and de-colonization in India in this personal narrative that was shown as a colossal six channel video installation at dOCUMENTA (13), but is here adapted to single channel...