Conductions: Black Imaginings is a programmatic series of ephemeral in-gallery activations by Black artists which look at the ways in which Black performance, sound art, video and social practice art become bridges between present Museum practices and future Black imaginings of those spaces. Drawing on the use of the term “conduction” in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ novel The Water Dancer and the work of composer and music conductor Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, conduction is a practice of possibilities and a conjuring of unconventional routes towards collective creation and living.
This iteration of Conductions engages the work of artists ariella tai, Ella Ray and Sharyll Burroughs in considerations around relationships to and exchanges of power. The works directly recognize power as a malleable material, nodding to our collective potential to manipulate, exchange and destabilize it. Unconcerned with politeness, respectability and political correctness, these works gesture towards honest and challenging conversations around agency and self-determination.
This iteration of Conductions: Black Imaginings is curated by Jaleesa Johnston, Head of Public Programs and Engagement, and supported by the Portland Art Museum’s Artist Fund and its Learning and Community Partnerships Department.
Conductions: Black Imaginings Brochure
Image Description:
First Page: White page with orange Portland Art Museum logo at the top left – a P with the center hole filled in. Conductions: Black Imaginings. Image: Picture in Picture of a TV Screen. The larger image is mostly yellow. A figure walking down the hall is barely visible, appearing as a ghost or an image of the screen from a heat camera. The smaller image begins at the middle of the screen. It depicts the figure with short hair walking with another figure walking to the right. The left figure wears a yellow shirt and green jacket and the one on the right has long hair and wears a yellow and green sweater. The second figure looks to the left of the screen with their mouth open. A bulletin board or painting can be seen in the background to the left with stairs to the right. At the bottom: On View March 22-26, 2023.
Second Page:
Conductions: Black Imaginings is a programmatic series of in-gallery ephemeral activations by Black artists that look at the ways in which Black performance, sound, video and social practice works become bridges between present Museum practices and future Black imaginings of those spaces.Conductions engages the work of artists ariella tai, Ella Ray and Sharyll Burroughs in considerations around relationships to and exchanges of power. Use this guide to locate each artist’s work in the Museum’s Galleries.
At the bottom is a QR code and text that reads: Accessible text and labels available online at pam.to/Conductions-Labels.
Third Page:
ariella tai
look back at me (2022), three channel video installation with audio
Main Bldg. 1st Floor, Hoffman Nook
look back at me cites both the title and irreverent energy of the 2008 track from the genre-defining Miami rapper Trina. This multi-channel video and sound installation uses digital glitch and analog video processing tools to create visual and sonic altars for Black femme pleasure, play, revenge and possibility.
[Headshot Image Description: Square color photo of figure with curly dark chin-length hair wearing a black long sleeve shirt lays with head slightly tilted toward the camera. The figure’s eyes are fixed forward and the image is blurred with lines that run from the nose to the bottom of the photo. A slim ray of rainbow colored illumination appears in the middle of the bottom of the photo.]
Ella Ray
Burning Questions (2020), Wood, metal hinges, house paint, metallic vinyl
Display Schedule:
Wednesday 03/22: Hoffman & Park Lobbies (Main 1st Floor)
Thursday 03/23: Overlook & European Galleries (Main 2nd Floor)
Friday 03/24: Color Line & Link Galleries (Lower Level)
Saturday 03/25: CMCA 1 & 2
Sunday 03/26: CMCA 3 & 4
Composed in 2020 on their notes app, Ray recalls these questions as “the thoughts that prohibited [them] from being ‘productive’” that summer. Ray views the questions presented in this work as “both urgent and durational as the end nears. Individuals and institutions are invited to temporarily disrupt their day by questioning their relationship to power, praxis, and creativity.” Contrary to the assumed static nature of objects within museum spaces, Learning and Community Partnerships Department staff install these works in different galleries throughout the run of the show.
[Headshot Image Description: Black and white photo of an individual with black hair braided in rows wearing a black spaghetti string tank top and a light colored jacket with pockets on the front with the left side hanging at the figures side. The figure looks to the left of the photo towards a ray of sunlight which illuminates the figure’s face. A green plant and white door are visible behind the figure.]
Sharyll Burroughs
Wabi-sabi (2023), vintage kimono, cross stitching on linen, fabric
KOAN #5 (2023), wood letters, wood mobile hanger, thread
All Things Must Pass (2008), fabric, thread
Dhamma (2023), ink stamp
CMCA 4th Floor , Traces Exhibition
Burrough’s art embraces paradox as a means to subvert the power of stereotypes. The work is a surprising, perplexing mix of contradiction, humor, and satire which transforms racism into a theater of the absurd. The perceived power of white supremacy is deflated, rendering prejudice into something to be mocked and rejected.
[Headshot Image Description: A Black figure wearing a black suit and gray shirt with black glasses stands facing slightly to the left in front of a large projection of a figure. The figure’s eyes are open wide and fixed straight ahead. The figure has slicked black hair that is pulled close to the head. The figure is wearing a gray shirt and sitting in front of a solid black background that bleeds to create the frame for the painting.]
Fourth Page: Map which is divided into two columns, main building on the left and CMCA on the right. Orange lines point to the location of the work in the exhibition. ariella tai’s work in the main building, main floor, in the nook next to the elevator in the Hoffman lobby. Ella Ray’s work: 3/22 – Park Ave Lobby and Hoffman lobby, 3/23 – Main Building, floor 2 near the sculpture court overlook, 3/24 Main Building – lower level in Color Line and the Link, 3/25 – Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art (CMCA) Floor 1 near elevator and floor 2 near the steps. 3/26 – CMCA floor 3 and 4 near the elevator. Sharyll Burroughs – CMCA 4.
ariella tai
look back at me (2022)
Three channel video installation with audio
look back at me cites both the title and irreverent energy of the 2008 track from the genre-defining Miami rapper Trina. This multi-channel video and sound installation uses digital glitch and analog video processing tools to create visual and sonic altars for Black femme pleasure, play, revenge and possibility. look back at me utilizes and appropriates canonical pop culture film and media images of Black lesbians and queered femmes, featuring concert footage of Janet Jackson from her Velvet Rope tour, Chrystale Wilson as Ronnie in the 1998 film The Players Club and the inimitable Grace Jones, amongst others. Within the context of the Museum, look back at me is a tongue-in-cheek disruption of the air of respectability within institutional and gallery spaces.
Text by ariella tai
Content Notice: This work includes mature content of a sexual nature and explicit language.
[Artwork Description:
Video 1:
Black background with large white bold capital letters reading “Look back at me” that flash with glitches and multicolor horizontal lines that flash over the letters. In the shadowed areas vertical green and purple lines fill the top of the letters. As the sentence ends, mostly white horizontal lines glitch from the right to the left with light rainbow colors on top. A loud pounding heartbeat sounds in the background.
The background fades into black and a white triangle fills the right side with a white ball in the top middle of the screen. The black and white forms morph into a distorted image of a woman’s face, mouth wide open. The screen flashes to a picture in picture scene with black and white images filling the larger frame and the same video in color smaller in the center frame.
The scene is from the 1998 movie The Players Club. The background frame has black and white images from the movie that turn to as if you were seeing it through an infrared lens with mostly yellow and orange tones and blue on the clothing. The frame in the middle starts with the same color and images, but changes to being full color with heavy glitching.
The image shows the character Ronnie, a Black woman with blonde hair with heavy short layers on top and longer layers on the sides down to her shoulders. She wears a black latex long-sleeve bodysuit with long legs with slashes in the material every couple inches and black shiny platform heels. She is in a room with a staircase on the right and various decorations on the walls. She is surrounded by mostly white, male police officers in blue uniforms and a few males wearing suits and ties. She says “Alright you mother fuckers. All eyes on me. If I catch you looking at anything else I’m gonna beat yo ass like a runaway slave. Start the music.”
She walks to a corner where there is a table with a lamp behind it. She sets down the briefcase she is carrying and steps onto the table. Behind her is a large white banner hanging from the ceiling with multicolored confetti and letters reading “Congratulations Dick”. She begins dancing. Swinging her arms and moving her hips then turning to face away from the crowd and slowly lowers into a squatted position. As she dances a low heavy bass beat plays on top of the heartbeat sound.
She drops onto her hands and feet, buttocks in the air and multiple men place cash in her bodysuit and on the floor near her feet. The image shifts from regular color to inverted color and bright neon colors fill the space around the central frame. The glitches strongly distort the image. A young white policeman with blonde hair holds money in his teeth and kneels in front of the table looking intently at her legs.
She turns and speaks while continuing to dance, “Didn’t I say all eyes on me?” The music is distorted, like listening through a tunnel. The image shifts to inverted color in the center frame and mostly black and white in the larger frame. Ronnie continues dancing, hands intertwined behind her head, elbows out. She spins to the left and lowers, bending her knees.
The middle frame disappears and a black and white image of Ronnie fills the screen. The cop with the blonde hair is at the bottom right and turns back to look behind him. Heavy glitching and shifting colors fill the screen as a male figure walks from the back of the room towards Ronnie. Ronnie shows in inverted color with heavy glitching while she says repeatedly, “Goddamn you. Hey! Hey! What the fuck are you doing? Didn’t I say all eyes on me? Didn’t I say all eyes on me?” The white man responds, “Yes mam.” “Didn’t I say all eyes on me? Bring your ass over here. Didn’t I say all eyes on me? Didn’t I say all eyes on me? You think you special or something?” The white man responds, “No mam.” “You think you better than everybody up in here?” The white man responds, “No mam.” “Didn’t I say all eyes on me? Oh I think because you’re a lowlife pig you’re too good to watch me.” The white man responds, “No mam.” “You know what every time I come here you are the same one starting problems. So you know what that means don’t you?” The white man responds, “Yes mam.” “Assume the fucking position.” The white man responds, “Yes mam! Yes mam! Yes mam! Yes mam!” [Laughter in the crowd with heavy bass beats in the music on top of static noises.]
Ronnie walks to the back of the crowd where the white man has pulled a chair over. The image is clouded by a layer of smoky gray on the top and bottom and black cloud-like strip across the middle and black glitched lines along the top and bottom.
The image switches to normal coloring in the center frame with the frame duplicated slightly larger behind it with black in the larger frame. Ronnie says, “You better sound off, too, say it loud!” while she spanks the man with a large flat paddle board. He screams, “I’m Black and I’m proud!” and flails while the other men cheer her on, standing around the chair in a circle.
The camera zooms in on Ronnie yelling, “Say it loud!” as she spanks him with the paddle. The white man screams, “I’m Black and I’m proud! I’m Black and I’m proud!” “Say it one more time for Rodney King. Say it loud! Say it loud!” – Ronnie spanks him. The white man yells “I’m Black and I’m proud! I’m Black and I’m proud!” A close up of the man’s red buttocks after being spanked.
Ronnie walks to the front of the chair, facing the man, and says, “You lucky it’s Black history month or it would’ve been a lot worse.” She looks at the crowd and says, “Who else wants some?”. The men clamor around her, holding out cash and saying, “Me! Me! Me!” During this dialogue the screen turns black then has a series of static and glitch. The left side of the frame is white then thin vertical lines of yellow, orange, red, pink, blue, green, red, blue, green, pink, blue, and black.
A quick flash of a vampire, brows furrowed, hands clasped over her mouth and nose with long, curved fingernails. As her hands move downward her open mouth full of teeth, including fangs, is revealed. She screams while the intense heartbeat sound continues.
The screen flashes to a bony skeleton hand appearing to be on a street, reaching up to a cement dock. Thick white horizontal glitches with rainbow colors in the middle overlap the image. It scratches at the cement wall then comes back down, fingers bent, then the third finger extends slowly. Briefly you can see hands controlling the skeleton and a thick black outline frames the hand.
It then flashes to a pair of skeleton heads. The frame with the two skeletons, mouths open, with eyeballs and ears, blood dripping from the top of the skull is centered with their image repeated in the larger frame behind with a thin layer of black over the top on the sides and blue in the center. Ronnie’s voice is heard saying “Didn’t I say all eyes on me?” Crackling sounds with an undertone of rushing wind get louder as the frame blurs and zooms in on the skeleton’s eyeballs.
As the picture zooms out it fades to an image of Grace Jones in Boomerang, a Black woman with dark red lipstick, mouth wide open, and eyes closed. Her hair has jagged bangs that come to a point in the middle of her forehead and braids that stick out from her head. She is wearing large silver teardrop shaped earrings and a jacket with metal embellishments around the neck. She stands in front of a blue foggy background with multiple chandelier type lights. Her image is reversed to the right and then repeated larger in the full screen behind.
The screen goes black and flashes to a small center frame showing a large wooden crate being lowered onto a dock area by helicopter. The cable is released and falls to the ground. The image flashes to a person in brightly colored clothing falling and then back to the helicopter which now has a search light shining downward. Two center frames appear showing people dancing in on a street, all wearing bright clothing. It then flashes back to the helicopter turning around and the wooden crate sitting on the dock in the dark. The larger frame has blurred video of several people in tuxedos and formal dresses dancing. The center frame shows the door of the crate open from the top to form a ramp for the people inside. Shirtless men wearing decorative metal collars around their necks that flow down their chest in a triangle shape and baggy black leather pants and boots pull a horse carriage with large wooden wheels out of the crate. Intense pounding music with a background of the sound of horses.
The men and carriage form a blurred background on the large frame as a smaller frame appears in the center showing a crowd of people dancing on Bourbon Street – in the street, on the sidewalks, and on outdoor patios. Hot pink and green lights fill the space. A woman with long black hair wearing shorts and sneakers hangs from a zipline rope high above the street and hangs upside down, bringing legs up around the rope. The scene flashes to another scene outside in the dark with the carriage and then into a dark, candlelight lit room where the men pull the carriage through the middle of the room surrounded by a crowd. Intense music with a heavy beat plays in the background. The image shifts to a Black woman, barely visible, riding in the carriage, yelling.
The whole frame flashes to a black and white scene with multiple moving images overlapped. Flames appear over dark objects with a silhouetted figure with long curly hair overlaid onto them. Then a bomb going off with particles flying into the air, magnified in a center frame. Then a high-rise building exploding briefly. Followed by a color image of flames in a large circle, like lava.
The center frame is mostly translucent and shows a Black woman kissing a white man, with his back to the viewer. She runs her hands on the man’s back. The whole frame flashes to a close-up of a Black woman with lipstick pulls a lemon across her lips as she’s about ready to bite it. Sounds of biting and chewing are loud in the background. The screen flashes to black and white images of an atomic bomb with a large black cloud of smoke billowing upward down a street lined with power poles. The center frame returns, outlined in pink, and shows a bald man standing in a doorway. Behind him in the room a large white man wearing a baseball cap and dark coat stands next to a woman who has her right hand holding his cheeks and chin. They lock eyes and she shakes her head. Around them the large screen shows fiery lava. The woman says “Sit your ass down.”
The large screen goes black and the small center screen shows a video player window with a light-skinned man in a bathtub filled with red rose petals. His left arm is outstretched and head tilted back with lips open. A dark-skinned hand reaches up onto the chin. The chewing sound grows louder in the background. A brief moment shows a woman at the end of the tub taking a bite of the man’s torso .
The whole screen goes black with blue wavy smoke-like images scrolling across the screen. A shadowy figure dressed in black begins to appear in the center of the screen. The center frame reappears showing two figures in the rose petal filled bathtub. The larger screen has the same image in black and white. The woman comes close to the man, grabs his face, and they kiss. The chewing sounds continue along with a heartbeat and rushing water sound. The screen flashes back to the dark figure walking in the shadows then back to the couple in the tub as the woman kisses his neck. An additional frame shows up in the center focusing on the figure in the shadows. It comes closer and the camera slowly pans up until you see brown hair. The black and white images of the figures in the bathtub appear in the background on the larger screen. Then flashes to them being in the center screen kissing.
The whole large screen is filled with black and white static with the Black woman in the black bodysuit barely visible behind. The small frame pans up starting at the figure’s high heel boots and pans up her legs and chest and stops at her hair. Distorted color and glitching covers the center frame. It flashes back to the woman and man in the bathtub. Then to Janet Jackson in a black bodysuit singing on stage. Then back to the bathtub with the woman kissing the man’s neck while his arms are outstretched and the background is blurred.
Then the full screen changes to snowy static with a barely visible depiction of Janet Jackson in the middle. At the top left is a frame filled with black with a ghost like image of Janet Jackson with long hair. On the right is a small frame showing a crowd at a Janet Jackson Velvet Rope Tour concert. A Black man wearing a black t-shirt and baggy khaki pants crawls over the barrier and onto the stage where he is strapped onto a board resembling a surgery table with his arms outstretched and tied down. A close up of his face fills the large frame while a smaller frame shows Janet in black and white, appearing almost ghost-like. The loud chewing sounds continue.
The full frame focuses on the fan’s face. He is yelling “I love you Janet.” He throws his head back and yells. His image turns blue and is mirrored creating the illusion of four heads – two on the vertical plane and two on the horizontal. As the heads move the mouths overlap. Different colors flash and glitch. The image morphs to the back of Janet Jackson as she approaches the man.
The screen flashes to three columns. On the left in dark blue with light illuminating from the back is the man strapped to the table, mouth open. The middle shows a close up of the man’s face, eyes closed, mouth open screaming. The right column shows bright blue light illuminating the stage from the side, Janet Jackson standing in front of the man, running her hand along the man’s crotch. She positions her whole body in front of his and presses against him. She rubs the back of his head and runs her hands down his neck and chest. The chewing sounds continue, but are drowned out with music from the concert. The whole frame shifts to a close up of the man, somewhat translucent, shaking his head and screaming with a layer of blood imposed on his image. The frame glitches and the image becomes black and white. While not audible, the man’s lips can be read saying “I love you Janet! Oh yes! Oh yes! Oh yes!”
The screen splits back into three columns. The image of the man on the table becomes more distorted with moving layers and multiple colors along with the layer of blood in the center image. It then flashes to more clear images in each column. The first, Janet Jackson is holding herself up with her right arm holding to the headrest and her legs wrapped around his waist. She is singing and looking back out at the crowd. The middle image is a close up of Janet Jackson, mouth open, tongue pressed against the back of her upper teeth, looking to the left over her shoulder. The right column shows a view from the right side of the table, her foot pressed against the middle of the table with her buttocks pressed tightly against the man’s crotch. The colors invert and additional footage is layered over the concert scene. The middle column layers on another clip of a Black woman and Black man making out.
The frame glitches back to three columns from the concert. The left column shows the table from the back, Janet looking down at the man. The one on the right shows Janet from the back. The middle shows the man laughing and screaming with a red textured layer over his face. He screams “Yes!” and breathes deeply as she touches his head and has her face pressed against his, only her mic separating their lips. The screen flashes black and then back to the columns. The chewing sounds continue to be louder than the concert music.
Flames fill the side columns and Janet lays on the man as he screams in pleasure and yells “Thank you, God”. Heavy black horizontal line glitches fill the entire frame and eventually covers it in gray and black lines.
The black screen flashes to a small frame in the center showing a Black woman wearing a pink wire like bikini and a headdress made of metal and crystals. She’s sitting in a directors chair in front of a blue curtain with a gray concrete post to her left. She has metal forearm cuffs on and clasps her hands on her knees. She has heavy makeup and looks straight ahead. She says, “It is definitely fun to explore that side of yourself” over deep rushing sounds. The screen goes black with tiny white dots filling the frame and then a small frame appears in the center. It is brightly colored and shows a woman with long black hair wearing a black dress leaning back on a zipline rope high above a packed Bourbon Street. It flashes back to the woman doing the interview and has black glitches over it. Her voice can be heard saying “and uh, the side of yourself that you keep hidden in your everyday life because you know that you are not supposed to go there… It’s fun to just be that evil person. See you how far you can really go. I like it.” The sound of the rushing heartbeat overpowers her voice. The screen flashes black with white glitches and large white capital letters with rainbow glitching over it appear reading “For Alyiah, Grace, Janet, Jada, and Ronnie.” Rainbow glitches fill the frame and the video ends.
Video 3:
Black background with large white bold capital letters reading “Look back at me” that flash with glitches and multicolor horizontal lines that flash over the letters. In the shadowed areas vertical green and purple lines fill the top of the letters. As the sentence ends, mostly white horizontal lines glitch from the right to the left with light rainbow colors on top. A loud pounding heartbeat sounds in the background.
The whole frame glitches and goes to a black background with white images that appear to be a human face in reverse black and white. The frame goes black again with stands of multicolored dots and dashes creating an organic shape that moves quickly across the screen to the rhythm of the beating heart sound.
A large center frame appears in color, showing a Black man behind a Black woman who is blurred and wearing silver hoop earrings. The image blurs and the frame fades away revealing a full black frame with white jagged lines that seem to outline shapes that are just barely not recognizable. The frame splits into three columns. The outer columns have several vertical lines that squiggle and bend. The center column has lines that appear to create outlines of human figures – one sitting on top of the other who is laying flat. The figures appear to kiss then all the columns blend into one large frame of pulsating white threads that pull into each other. Then a thick white vertical line appears on the left side of the screen and a series of other thick white lines radiate from it in pulsing waves resembling a sideways seismograph printout. The lines bend and fade, again revealing a human figure in the center.
The whole screen glitches and turns the full frame to black with a purplish tinted woman appearing on the left side, top of her head extending beyond the frame, mouth open. Glitched horizontal lines radiate from her face as if she is screaming. Heavy drum sounds along with an almost electronic voice play in the background. The face jumps to the right side of the screen, facing to the left. It is now gray with white, black, and gray horizontal lines radiating to the left and purplish blue and black lines radiating to the right. With her mouth obscured by the lines, her eyes meet the viewer. The voice pauses and the heartbeat sounds intensify.
The screen flashes to a black screen with a small frame in the middle. Heavy glitching and flashing continues in the frame. Occasionally a quick flash of a figure in a black bodysuit shoes in the middle of the frame. The drumbeats continue and lime green glitches flash at the bottom right of the frame.
The pattern repeats. Occasional flashes of a figure on a stage with a crowd in front. Glitching continues along with the electronic sounding voices layered over the beating heart sound. A frame flashes and stays long enough to identify the figure in the black bodysuit is Janet Jackson on stage. The frame is quickly filled with a bright blue background, purple and red stripes on the floor, and a bright white light that floods the stage and her feet. Heavy glitched lines appear from her waist up.
The drumming continues as the frame goes black with the occasional white glitch flickering. The lime green horizontal lines appear again. The glitching pauses and the center frame shows fans, hands raised, and Janet blurred on the stage with a blue background.
A brief moment of black frame with outlines made from small white dots and dashes that gives way to a bright blue background with a hot pink layer appearing like smoke. Dark figures are indistinguishable in the background and a smaller frame appears in the center that is black with several tiny white lines at the top and a thick one in the middle.
These both fade and Janet is seen in inverted color with a white face, purple bodysuit, and blue background. The white radiates off her hair, face, and chest with lines that extend to the right side of the frame. The camera follows her as she walks across the stage. The pounding heartbeat continues.
The screen glitches and pans to a mostly white scene of blasting light that emanates from Janet Jackson, obscuring her almost entirely. . The frame jumps in rhythm with the music and then an explosion of white fills the frame with purple and blue lines on the bottom left.
Janet reappears, the stage covered in white and Janet appearing in purple. She walks slowly to the left and appears to shade her eyes from the stage lights with her hands as she peers across the crowd. The camera pans to the audience who are jumping with their hands in the air.
The large frame goes black with heavy rainbow glitches down the center and in the upper right corner. A small frame appears in the middle. Janet appears in black and white with white lines radiating out from her face.
The center frame inverts colors again and Janet becomes purple. The background is white and yellow with a few blurry lines of purple. Rainbow and white vertical lines glitch and flash in the background.
The sound of someone chewing rises above the rhythmic heartbeat. The center frame dissipates and gives way to heavy horizontal lines of white, rainbow, and green that flash and glitch.
The frame flashes to black in the background with difficult to distinguish grainy blue images of what appear to be two heads. Jagged green glitches fill the right side of the frame and a center frame with a black background and bright blue and purple glitching appears.
Images of heads with eyes closed appear in the background and in the center frame heavy glitching obscures the view of Janet’s bodysuit, starting at the fit and slowly panning upward. As it continues, heavy white, gray, and green horizontal glitched lines fill the background. The chewing noise becomes more prominent above the sound of the beating heart.
The larger frame is filled with vibrating black and white horizontal lines that fade into purple and white glitching at the bottom of the screen. Briefly, a smaller frame is in the middle of the larger frame, depicting a closeup of a torso sensually moving. The small frame disappears and we are left with the horizontal black, white, and rainbow glitching lines of the larger frame.
A smaller frame appears in the middle of the larger frame, depicting an obscured figure first from a low vantage point, then from a high vantage point. The figure is immersed in a morphing black background. The scene cuts to a close-up frame of someone with long black nails in a black open eyelet bodysuit running their hands over their exposed cleavage. Closeup shots follow their hands that they run them over other parts of their body. As the frame disappears, an audio sound of visceral chewing, squishing, cracking, crunching sounds overlays the heartbeat and rushing air/white noise sound.
The viewer is left with the original larger frame of horizontal black, white and rainbow glitching, which quickly cuts to a mirrored face of a man who shakes his head side to side rapidly, his movements creating a circular blurs. The frame focuses in on the face of a Black man yelling and screaming, his image mirrored into four overlaid images. The original background of horizontal glitching continues and is visible through the transparent images of the man.
The frame cuts to a larger frame of glitching into blackness. A middle figure emerges from the glitch in gray, purple and rainbow colors. This person’s mouth appears obscured, as their eyes directly gaze at the viewer. As the glitching moves around sporadically, it reveals more of the face of the woman, as she continues to hold the viewer’s gaze with her own. The glitching dances around the screen, obscuring and revealing her face in black, rainbow, white and purple-gray horizontal lines.
The frame glitches out completely, as the woman disappears. The viewer is left with black, white and rainbow glitching, as a voice is heard saying, “It is definitely fun to explore that side of yourself, and uh the side of yourself that you keep hidden in your everyday life.” As the voice continues, the screen shifts to a blinding white light outline of two figures’ heads, mouths agape, as they get closer, implying a potential kiss. Instead, the moment of kissing melds the figures heads together into one that morphs into white glitches. Their heads pull back a part, still obscured by white glitching. All the while, the audio continues, “because you know you are not supposed to go there unless it is absolutely necessary. And um, yeah it is fun to just be evil.”
A smaller middle frame appears at the center of the screen, revealing a person with their head thrown back. Their body exists in pink, faint glitches. The smaller frame transitions to a wide shot of the figure bound to a table or rectangular structure, their head still thrown back and their arms displayed out. The larger frame goes from blinding white light glitches to solid black as the smaller middle frame cuts the a right angle of the bound figure, as another figure slowly approaches them in a saunter.
The small frame glitches out completely to black and white horizontal lines and static, that slowly depict a straight on vantage point of the two figures, as the figure on the left continues to hear the bound figure on the right.
The frame cuts to reveal the figure on the left to be Janet Jackson, as a closeup shot of her face comes into focus and multiplies into three tiered frames for a brief moment.
The 2 side frames disappear, leaving only the middle frame within a larger frame, which become echoes of each other, both depicting on two different scales the bound figure, glitched out almost to complete abstraction in black and white. The view shifts to a side profile of a figure’s face and then shifts again to a profile of two figures interacting. The larger frame goes to complete black as the viewer is left to focus on the two figures in the smaller frame, glitching in and out of black and white abstraction.
One figure pulls away from the other and the smaller central frame begins to focus on a feminine figure’s face before exploding into white glitch. A smaller frame appears in the top left corner, revealing a black and white glitch of Janet Jackson’s side profile atop a larger frame of an obscured figure.
The middle frame goes transparent enough to reveal the obscured figures facial expression as their lips part open, as if moaning or gasping with their eyes closed.
The image cuts to a person straddling another person in pink and purple tones. Flames overcome the larger background frame momentarily before it disappears into blackness, making the middle frame clear. The two figures appear to kiss. The entire frame is consumed in orange flames again. The background frame glitches to black, as the smaller middle frame becomes a clear image of a Black woman sitting in a director’s chair against a blue background. She wears a metal and jewel headdress and a metal bikini bra. This frame fades to a person suspended in the air above a crowd and then cuts back to the woman in the director’s chair before going completely black and glitching in and out faintly.
A woman’s face appears on the right side of the screen, mouth obscured in glitch, with her eyes meeting the audience’s gaze. The larger frame cuts back to white while the smaller frame comes back into the center with the Black woman in the director’s chair, glitching in and out.
The smaller middle frame cuts to a closeup of Janet Jackson, sitting in a leopard-print chair, smiling at someone off-camera. This image gives way to a large frame of someone’s lips, rubbing what appears to be a lemon against them.
The video closes with the words For Aaliyah, Grace, Janet Jada, and Ronnie in bold uppercase lettering, interrupted by rainbow and black glitching before cutting to black.]
Ella Ray
Burning Questions (2020)
Wood, metal hinges, house paint, metallic vinyl
During the run of Conductions: Black Imaginings, Ella Ray’s Burning Questions work travels throughout the Museum’s gallery spaces. Composed in 2020 on their notes app, Ray recalls these questions as “the thoughts that prohibited [them] from being ‘productive’” that summer. Ray views the questions presented in this work as “both urgent and durational as the end nears. Individuals and institutions are invited to temporarily disrupt their day by questioning their relationship to power, praxis, and creativity.” Contrary to the assumed static nature of objects within museum spaces, Learning and Community Partnerships Department staff install these works in different galleries throughout the run of the show, giving visitors opportunities to engage these questions of power within different art contexts.
A special note from the artist: “A special thank you to the Black Abbey Residency, Nat Turner Project, and Sharita Towne for the space and materials to create this work. Thank you to Page Ray for your support, always.”
[Artwork Description: Two solid black A-frame signs with block capital lettering. Sign 1 Reads: What does (institutional) rupture taste/sound/feel like?
Sign 1 Reads: Who gets in the way of your creative autonomy?]
Quotes by Ella Ray
Please take a print.
[Artwork Description: Neon pink acrylic sign holder holding copies of Ella Ray’s quotes. The brochure is white with bold flattened capital letters reading: Between now and the future, what needs to happen? Smaller letters that are situated sideways run the length of the right side of the page reading: This is a space of play, immediacy, failure, criticality, fantasy. The second page is also white and uses the same font in a smaller size listing the following questions: does your fantasy include reparations/repatriation/decarceration?, After the revolution, do museums still exist?, what does institutional rupture taste/sound/feel like?, why do we academicize (the) struggle?, who gets in the way of your creative autonomy?, between now and the future, what needs to happen?, who informs your concept of credibility/desirability/collectibility?, can pleasure exist within the academy?]
Sharyll Burroughs
Wabi-sabi (2023), vintage kimono, cross stitching on linen, fabric
KOAN #5 (2023), wood letters, wood mobile hanger, thread
Black stereotypes were created within the historical context of white supremacy as ways of defining and demeaning black people. In a contemporary context, stereotypes are experienced as powerful metaphors for racism. To say that racism is illogical is an understatement, yet, people use logic to combat it. My approach is somewhat antithetical.
My art embraces paradox as a means to subvert the power of stereotypes. The work is a surprising, perplexing mix of contradiction, humor, and satire which transforms racism into a theater of the absurd. The perceived power of white supremacy is deflated, rendering prejudice into something to be mocked and rejected. From this perspective, false narratives embedded into racist symbolism can be recontextualized and dismantled. Thus, racism may be considered as something other than a mechanism of disempowerment. This rigorous and proactive method of inquiry is an important step toward building an autonomous and empowered identity outside the white gaze.
Text by Sharyll Burroughs
Content Notice: These works include racial slurs.
Sharyll Burroughs
Wabi-sabi (2023), vintage kimono, cross stitching on linen, fabric
[Artwork Description: Kimono that has dark brown sleeves with black vertical stripes, is dark green at the edge of the breast seams, and the lower back, and red around the neck and the top of the breast seams. A linen colored panel at the top of the chest has an embroidered depiction of a Black mammy. Her body is outlined in a think black line. She has large round breasts that are stitched with brown thread with lime green centers and black nipples. Her forehead is dark brown and she has twisted hair with five twists extending straight out from her head. She has large round eyes with black pupils and an exaggerated mouth with white lips that are red on the inside and six large teeth that completely fill her mouth. ]
Sharyll Burroughs
KOAN #5 (2023), wood letters, wood mobile hanger, thread
[Artwork Description: Wooden mobile suspended from the ceiling with a white string. The light wood mobile consists of two rounded light wood strips that have strings attached to the ends which hold the letters. There is a small wooden ball at the top and bottom of the intersection of the two strips. The letters are made from multiple layers of wood that have been pressed together. The letters from highest to lowest: R, I, E, G, G, N]
Sharyll Burroughs
All Things Must Pass (2008), fabric, thread
Dhamma (2023), ink stamp
Looking at racist depictions with an unflinching eye, Burroughs not only challenges the power that these constructs hold, but she also challenges the collective sacredness with which we hold these images and words, as we tuck it away carefully to the back of our national consciousness. By actively interweaving racially charged images and words in objects and performances, Burroughs offers us a different relationship to power and identity: rather than avoiding the pain of this history, the artist invites us to resist reactivity and to sit with our discomfort, a pathway to the fullness of our common humanity.
Displayed together on a pedestal, All Things Must Pass and Dhamma use mundane objects (a fabric bookmark and a rubber stamp) as vehicles for calling in and highlighting the absurdity of Black stereotypes within U.S. culture. With a subtle nod to the Francis Nelme Pair of George II Figural Candlesticks (1730), which are currently on view in Color Line: Black Excellence on the World Stage, Burroughs makes use of the educational undertones of the Museum space to invite visitors to challenge and rethink their understanding of these images and their use in power and agency formation.
[Artwork Description: Ink stamp on a black textured base. The stamp depicts a Black child with eyes open wide and mouth open as if screaming. The child’s hair is depicted in seven peaks that could be knots or braids.]