Edel Assanti is to present the group exhibition People Die Sometimes, curated by Jesse Hlebo, and featuring the artists Ryan Foerster, Yulan Grant, E. Jane, Gregory Kalliche, Devin Kenny, Denzel Russell.
It’s not the violence that is new. Civilisation is predicated on subjugation, humanity’s default agency over everything. The harnessing of fire, the domination of the land to produce what is needed to staggering quantities, will not go unchecked. Is NYC’s 63 degree fahrenheit weather on the first day of winter 2015 he universe bucking against its oppressor?
The white male, whose duty it is to write the laws of the land and the record contracts, is found surprised and angry under this new light of democratised social technology. Like when you kick a hole in the wall because the sounds won’t let you sleep, only to reveal what appears to be a nest of rats so large they must have spent their entire lives in that crevice. The light shining down causes them to cringe, the realisation of their grotesque appearance and putrid scent is all too real.
Who gets to take back life? Can you take back something you never had? Maybe stealing life is the way to operate. To realise a new world is a form of revolution. Perhaps this present environment of total collapse is leading towards a new world uninhabited by the human concept of hope. The method of something dying so something else can live seems more relevant than ever.
About the artists:
Ryan Foerster embraces chance and the transformative effects of time, weather, and other organic processes in abstract photographs that range from ethereal to tempestuous.
Yulan Grant is a video artist based in new york, originally from Kingston, Jamaica. She explores the use of appropriated footage, sound, and literature to discuss issues of class, race, and gender. As a young, queer woman of colour, Yulan’s artistic perspective is one of class-consciousness and community activism.
E. Jane is an artist and sound designer based in Philadelphia, PA. Her work considers themes of safety, futurity, cyberspace and how subjugated bodies navigate media. She has shown photo, performance and sound works at the kitchen in new york, as the other half of artist duo scraaatch.
Gregory Kalliche films and animations blur the line between the real and representational, blending common objects and unfamiliar contexts, found video and simulated environments.
Devin Kenny uses music, performance, video, writing, sculpture, garments, painting, and almost any other means possible to explore and complicate ideas on contemporary culture. Employing the tropes of social media and youth culture, the work is free to convey broad ideas while subversively inserting political and philosophical theory.
Denzel russell is a Trinidadian-American artist and musician working in Brooklyn, NY. Utilising tangible, luminous, and sonic qualities of various media, he creates works that reflect his surroundings from the past, present & future. Russell recently released his first EP, and exhibits and performs internationally under his alias “Pantoo’.
Exhibiting artists are: Ryan Foerster, Yulan Grant, E. Jane, Gregory Kalliche, Devin Kenny, Denzel Russell.
PEOPLE SOMETIMES, DIE – CURATED BY JESSE HLEBO – Edel Assanti – 20 January to 5 March 2016.