By Judy Cantor – Thursday, Feb 27 1997
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But the most provocative contribution to this show belongs to Onajide Shabaka, who has hung what is essentially a solo exhibition in a small corner office unoccupied by employees. The centerpiece of his installation, placed in the middle of the room, is a rusty wheelbarrow containing the silhouetted figure of a road construction worker cut from rubber roofing material. The flat rubber piece drapes lifelessly over the wheelbarrow, half of it hanging off onto the floor. More such silhouettes are glued to the wall. The motif is continued in works in other media: the image of a street worker painted on a found sign, etched in pastel on a canvas coated with soot, depicted in negative-image in several large gelatin silver prints.
The figures in the photos possess an angelic glow, and their facial features are obscured. There is something reverential in this mode of representation, but at the same time Shabaka underscores in these faceless photos the road crews’ collective anonymity: To the people who pass by in their cars, they’re merely inconvenient street furniture. And sometimes, frustrated and exhausted, they no longer recognize themselves.
Titled “Cotton and Iron,” Shabaka’s installation is autobiographical on several levels. The artist, who grew up in Ohio and studied fashion design in California, has often done road work and other kinds of construction for a living. His ancestors were Southern slaves, and his interest in black work crews finds its broader context in history — specifically, in the journey from the rural fields to the urban streets. Shabaka’s combinations of common materials — rust and rubber, soot and cardboard — embody a gritty attractiveness and evocative familiarity, a pleasing physicality that contrasts with their rather grim social message.
“African World Art into the 21st Century” is on exhibit through April 30 at Century 21–Allstate Realty & Investments, 10800 Biscayne Blvd, ste 900; 538-2803.
<via: Miami New Times>
multi media works, performative actions, photo
