9/19 William Pope L.
Time: 6pm, CFA 112
William Pope.L is a visual and performance-theater artist and educator who makes culture out of contraries. Pope.L was included in The 2002 Whitney Biennial, and his street performances have been featured in Art in America. Citing social conundrum as the engine that drives his work, Pope.L addresses contemporary issues such as class, consumerism, and culturally embedded racism with dark humor and biting critique. His installations use unconventional materials, including peanut butter, mayonnaise, and Pop Tarts to provoke a closer examination of the "stuff" of everyday life and to raise questions about art as a commodity. According to the artist's dictum "Race becomes You", and his own body becomes the site on which to play out, literalize and interrogate stereotypes. A traveling 25 year retrospective exhibition of Pope.L's work was exhibited in Portland, Maine; Houston, Texas; Portland, Oregon; New York City and at Rutgers University, New Jersey.
posted by Adriane @ 8:42 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Yeah this was pretty interesting anyone else go? I enjoyed it. I want to see more of his stuff.
Enjoyed it in what way? I scrolled over his name and got this website alot of the time the lectures seem more interesting when they are performing if they are a performance artist i wonder how effective that is to crawl down a public street because artists tend to see the after document and then the people that actual see him do this probably just think that he's nuts?
http://www.theblackfactory.com/ sorry here's the website
I felt he was pretty bold in some of his pieces. His image work was more interesting, his performance stuff was definetly strange but still interesting.
I respected his attempt to what seemed like to me break down a lot of social constructs. He stated black and white, why not purple and green? I think that really gave me a sense of what he was trying to accomplish. Breaking down patterns and preconstructed ideas of race and class. I enjoyed how he was also speaking about how if your black and an artist your a black artist not just an artist. These constructs are always facinating to me, since I try to deal with them as well. I've been reading Black Skin White Masks, and in the beginning it delves into how blacks when becoming educated intergate a lot into white culture, and it creates these paradoxes and frustrations. I felt Pope here was trying to address some of these social constructs and breaking them down. The image of him covering himself in this white powder spoke volumes to me. It made me think of cocaine, the attempt of the black america trying to enter white society with little success. I mean it's deep work so I definetly want to see some more.
WHAT I LOVED was that he said his attraction to advent garde was that it was cheap. As a poor artist myself I can relate. I also love that he was talking about how us the poor make important contributions to culture and that needs to be addressed.
avant*
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