Vox Populi Gallery
Philadelphia, PA
Surf Club
Gallery 2
Kameelah Janan Rasheed www.kameelahr.com
"HOW TO SUFFER POLITELY (AND OTHER ETIQUETTE FOR THE LUMPENPROLETARIAT)" , 2014
3- Digital Chromogenic Prints on Fuji Crystal Archival Matte paper, 24" x 30"
Curatorial Statement: I chose Rasheed’s work in relationship to Timothy Belknap’s selection as a chance to make verbal the feeling of being bound and constrained. I think the work I chose speaks to the current social climate and the demands of respectability politics, and how this “double-binds” African-Americans in the face of prejudices and racial violence. This same societal request for “respectability” is reflected in the microcosm—specifically exhibitions spaces within Philadelphia. I like the works, as they function physically and literally as proclamatory interjections that can stand on their own, able to demand space despite being a part of a larger group exhibition. The majority of the artists within my group have chosen objects, paintings, or photographic-based work, exempt of body, race, or any political climate upon immediate appearance. I feel the juxtaposition is, at once, a deliberate departure from the visual aesthetic set, as well as serving as a metaphor for political unrest against the backdrop of erasure.