9:39 minutes
In True Red Ruin (Elmina Castle) , Danielle Dean uses archival documents to re-imagine colonial history from the 1400s, while also referencing her own personal history. Elmina Castle was built in Ghana in 1482 as a Portuguese trading post, and later became a key location in the Atlantic slave trade. Dean’s re-enactment is set in an affordable housing community in Houston, Texas, where her half-sister Ashstress Agwunobi lives, and who also performs the role of “the native.” Dean plays the role of “the prospector,” who plans to “colonize” her sister’s home by bringing a wobbly red cardboard castle into the grounds of the community and getting the locals to help build it and work there. Using iPhone recordings, split-screen, and reality-TV techniques, Dean re-enacts a historical narrative from 500-years ago, but also weaves in contemporary issues of gentrification, capitalism, racism, and her and her sister’s own identities into the story. Dean was born in the United States but raised in England, unlike Agwunobi who was born and raised in Houston. Watching the video, one might compare the two trajectories of the sisters. How might one’s geographical location and its colonial history change a person, if at all?
Danielle Dean creates videos that use appropriated language from archives of advertisements, political speeches, newscasts, and pop culture to create dialogues to investigate capitalism, post-colonialism, and patriarchy. Her work focuses on how subjectivity is constructed in relation to mass-marketed products, and how our behavior is molded by advertising. She also explores the dimensionality of materials and functions of technology through the lens of her own multinational background, and how they can be used as tools of oppression.
Bowers’ Radical Hospitality (2015) is a sculptural contradiction: its red and blue neon letters proclaim the words of the title, signaling openness and generosity, while the barbed wires that encircle the words give another message entirely...
The small drawings that comprise Study from May Day March, Los Angeles 2010 (Immigration Reform Now) and We Are Immigrants Not Terrorists are based on photographs taken at a political rally in downtown Los Angeles in which thousands of individuals demonstrated for immigrants’ rights...
Untitled (Wheelchair Drawing) is a ten-foot photo transfer of the image of a wheelchair with burning embers in its seat...
In the 1980’s, while browsing Parisian fleamarkets, Barbara Bloom stumbled into an anonymous watercolor (dating to around 1960) in one of Paris’ fleamarkets, probably a study made by an interior designer for a bedroom...
In 2003, Nike released a pair of red and black sneakers (the Dunk Low Pro SB ) that were marketed as “vampire” sneakers...
A new study examines pandemic relief funds distributed to arts and entertainment : NPR Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player A new study examines pandemic relief funds distributed to arts and entertainment A new study finds that the government had a rare moment of generosity toward the arts during the pandemic...
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Nicolas de Staël — Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Nicolas de Staël — Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Nicolas de Staël Exposition Peinture À venir Nicolas de Staël, Agrigente, 1954 Huile sur toile, 60 × 81 cm Collection particulière © ADAGP, Paris, 2023 / Photo Annik Wetter Nicolas de Staël Dans 2 mois : 15 septembre 2023 → 21 janvier 2024 Le Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris consacre une grande rétrospective à Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955), figure incontournable de la scène artistique française d’après-guerre...
In 2003, Nike released a pair of red and black sneakers (the Dunk Low Pro SB ) that were marketed as “vampire” sneakers...
No Lye by Danielle Dean documents a group of five women, including Dean herself, confined to a small, cramped bathroom, communicating only by using slogans culled from beauty advertisements (“beauty is skin deep”, “naturalise, it’s in our nature to be strong and balanced”) and quotes from political speeches (“we must protect our borders”, “we are fighting for our way of life and our ability to fight for freedom”)...
Hexafluorosilicic acid is a type of sodium fluoride waste product that can be found in a large amount of widely available products such as cleaning fluids, toothpaste, rat poison, and drinking water...
Edinburgh Castle on the Bin Bag features a model of the Edinburgh castle constructed by using shiny black cards placed on top of an open, full black plastic trash bag...