Shocked by Allison Keyes of NPR
Allison Keyes, her NPR report, “National Portrait Gallery Hosts Hip-Hop Exhibit,” becomes most shockingly insightful for people actually interested in how the “art world” really works at minute 5:16 in a 6:44 segment. Allison Keyes actually took the time to show how Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture, Brandon Brame Fortune, completely misinterprets the work of Jefferson Pinder. I appreciate the Blackness of that.
In Pinder’s “Invisible Man” video piece (“The truth is the light”), Ms. Fortune sees “power” in the screen turning all white representing something she calls “heaven”—while anyone (of any skin color) who is slightly familiar with Ralph Ellison’s work knows that Pinder was expressing the horror of invisibility. And the powerful irony of these real-life events is that Pinder did get to experience the horror of invisibility by “winning” the “privilege” of showing his work to Brandon Fortune—but was his work really recognized?
Now, I haven’t been listening to NPR on a regular basis since Bush hit the Oval Office twice with much fake media objectivity and strategic obsequiousness, so when Allison Keyes actually points out and questions why a bunch of self-described “white” people are the curatorial gatekeepers for a Black-oriented show at the National Portrait Gallery, this subtle activism found me a bit surprised as well. Brandon Fortune, of course, “stepped back” from Ms. Keyes’ questions and just encouraged us all to come to the show. Is you ready to go?
I am a child of the Cecil Fergerson School of curatorial perception and have no trouble seeing vast plateaus of space providing room for improvement in the commercial/political world barbarians call “the arts.” My appreciation goes out to Allison Keyes for reviving this issue and gently reminding listeners, in the greatest empire television has ever seen, that this shit is real and present—and easily accessible without any great explosive displays of anger—free from any misplaced accusations of “hateration.”