I Am Blue, 1
2019 - Sculpture (Sculpture)
167.64 x 60.96 x 88.9 cm
American Artist
From suicides, to gang violence, to the epidemic abuse of force by police departments (predominantly against Black men), to school and mass shootings, there is perhaps no more urgent issue in the United States than gun control. The color blue is a proxy for both sadness, and a color that is emblematic of American law enforcement services. I Am Blue, 1 by American Artist is a sculpture that fuses a school desk with a ballistic shield. It is part of a larger suite of works including a video seminar in which a blue-colored avatar ?speaks of police violence, as well as a set of books on police psychology. Collectively, these items can be assembled to make a seminar-like room, wherein the attendees are seated in traditional school desks modified so that the table tops are outfitted as bullet proof shields. Allusions to school shootings in this work blur with the unending spate of police shootings to form a meta-narrative on the interlinked systems of violence which have run amok due to American gun culture. In addition to this, the fact that the work implicates cops as “shielded”, promotes the twinned idea that they are spared from this violence, and thus have impunity for their actions. As a necessary counterpoint, the work could also be read as a need for the police to empathize with victims, i.e., students, but that police also need to be educated on necessary de-escalation practices. While this work advocates for police, gun, and race relation reform, it could also be said that American Artist’s legal name change – as a camouflage, or form of “passing” – doubles the effects of the work’s engagement with shield and cover imagery.
American Artist makes experimental work in the form of sculpture, video, and software that comments on histories of race, technology and forms of knowledge production. American Artist had their name legally changed in 2013 for multiple reasons. The idea that they chose to generalize their name so as to confuse their identity is itself a comment on identity and its related privileges, and conversely, its disenfranchisements. The artist also publishes unbag, a journal on art and politics, as well as writes articles for the The New Inquiry .
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Ben Shaffer
2007Ben Shaffer’s Ben Deroy (2007) is part performance, part self-portrait, and part spiritual vision...
© » HYPERALLERGIC
Join Purchase College’s Creative Hub for Graduate Studies in Art Skip to content Richard & Dolly Maass Gallery installation: Lane Sell, “Navelstring” (2023), silkscreen, painting, cyanotype, and assemblage The MFA in Visual Arts at Purchase College, State of New York (SUNY), is a small, selective interdisciplinary program that fosters the artistic, intellectual, and professional growth of students through independent studio work and rigorous academic studies...
© » ARTEFUSE
Interview with Megan Nugroho and Samuel Alexander Forest - ArteFuse Where do we look for the antidote to the inevitable challenges and disenchantment of living in global metropolises? At Tutu Gallery, Land Language/Bahasa Bumi offers a place of refuge rooted in Javanese landscape and opens up a world in which nature’s intimate immediacy is materialized...
© » ARTOMITY
Bram Bogart at White Cube Hong Kong – ARTOMITY 藝源 Bram Bogart / Signs / Nov 24, 2023 – Jan 6, 2024 / Opening: Thursday, Nov 23, 6pm – 8pm / White Cube Hong Kong 50 Connaught Road, Central Hong Kong +852 2592 2000 Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm whitecube.com White Cube Hong Kong is pleased to present the first exhibition in Asia of the late Dutch-born Belgian artist Bram Bogart (1921–2012)...
© » KADIST
Chitti Kasemkitvatana
2011Mo(nu)ment / (…) / mem(y)orial (2011) is one of the artist’s first artworks after his retreat as a monk...
© » ARTOMITY
ITALY: A New Collective Landscape at HKDI Gallery – ARTOMITY 藝源 100 Italian designers under 35 / ITALY: A New Collective Landscape Jan 19 – May 19, 2024 / Curated by Angela Rui / HKDI Gallery Hong Kong Design Institute 3 King Ling Road, Tseung Kwan O Northern Territories, Hong Kong +852 3928 2566 Wednesday – Monday, 10am – 8pm hkdi.eu.hk Fresh off its successful debut at Milan’s ADI Design Museum last year, the touring exhibition is on display at HKDI Gallery...
© » ART & OBJECT
Three Art Books for Your Winter Reading Pleasure | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...
© » KADIST
Kori Newkirk
2013LAB (2013) conjures the body as the trace of a sooty hand appears, spectrally, on a crumpled paper towel...
© » KADIST
Hikaru Fujii
2020The film The Anatomy Classroom is part of a research project developed by Hikaru Fujii around objects and artifacts evacuated from the Futaba Town Museum of History and Folklore, which is located in the “difficult-to-return zone” since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident...
