Have you ever been to the Bronx Museum of the Arts? I’m asking because I’ve asked many people — especially artists — that same question over the years and I’m surprised by how many Bronxites and others who love art, have never been there. Well, now is the time. “Bronx Calling: The Fifth AIM Biennial” (the result of a fellowship program) is still on exhibit, but only until March 20. The museum is FREE, on the Grand Concourse and close to D- and 4-trains. Here are just a couple of photos of a few dozen excellent pieces in the show. (Here’s a great review of it in Hyperallergic). And keep checking out the Bronx Museum.
Protest and Counter-Protest by Jesse Kreuzer, 8 x 32 feet Photo by Jordan Moss
This photo is of two works by artist Victoria-Idongesit Udondian: “Akaising” and “1271, 1245.” Photo by Jordan Moss
From Oct. 20 thru Jan. 16 the Bronx Museum of the Arts, on the Grand Concourse and E. 165th St., exhibits the work of 69 emerging NYC artists who experienced the museum’s incubator program. Can’t wait to check it out. Hope you do too! (If you’ve never been to the Bronx Museum, I’d say this is a great time to begin. Such wonderful art there that too few of us see. And it’s free!)
The reflections from the glass covering of each large piece make you walk up close and wonder why the heck the curator didn’t see the reflections when they were installed. When I walked up to the piec, I didn’t understand what I was looking at. I saw various clothed body sections but I didn’t understand the action being taken. There were even cutouts from the charcoal drawing.
All this had purpose.
Though the head of a person was non-existent, that empty half-body-like section was filled with parts of me. No, I was not killed, nor did I kill, but the message I interpreted for myself is that I have some role in the tale, even if I was in bed, or at Starbucks or on a bike ride for the seven minutes that Officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck. Anti-racism doesn’t mean not killing or not saying racist things. It means acting, speaking, showing up — against racism. There were other pieces created with related messages, some a little harder to interpret, for me at least, which is why I need to, and look forward to, returning to the exhibit to look, and think more. And read more about racism in general. And learn. And act.
In a video on the museum’s site, Leonardo shares his message briefly but in these minimal, intense words he offers more than any art critique can provide.
[It took me a few minutes (and I think my friend, Larry, pointed it out) to see that that the emptiness in this piece with my, and the exhibit’s, reflection in center, was the absence of George Floyd. What’s more powerful than that?]
“And if you experience something lodged in your body, some guttural, visceral impression, then I wish for you to stay with that for a moment, to sit with the hurt,” he said, “so that you may leave this exhibition questioning the ways that we perceive. And at the end of this experience, we may discover ways to move differently in the world and to breathe life into this history of violence.”
The show is on until May 30. Attendance is free but you must make a reservation which is rather easy. Go if you can!
Bronx Matters 