The Resistant Gesture – Curator: Tavarus Blackmon
Artist: Sydney Acosta, Caiti Chan, Jodi Connelly, Elizabeth Joy Cord, Rachel Deane, Hea-Mi Kim, Amy Nathan, Holly Smith
Merriam-Webster defines Resist as the ability “to withstand the force or effect of.” In today’s society of American Culture it can be argued that there are many opportunities to rebuff an undesirable force. And though there is no firm consensus on this issue, though across the globe there is a state of survey and activity, where previous ways of thinking are being processed and re-imagined, here at home there is fewer consensus on basic and fundamental issues.
The artists in this exhibition have powerful, nuanced and emergent voices. In a market where there are many – though complicated – moments to resist an exerting force they are here, cultivating a space of identity, solidarity and grace. Recently, in noting forces in the Art World and methods on how to “withstand,” activists and artists have protested the role of Warren B. Kanders as the Whitney Museum of Art’s (NY), Board Vice Chairman. They cited his defense manufacturing company, Safariland, and its production of tear-gas canisters used against asylum seekers about the U.S./Mexico border. This may have influenced his resignation.
And with this work, Resistant Gesture is full of intention, discovery and affirmation, similar to currents vibrating nationally and globally in the effort to withstand a force or effect. The artists articulate keen ideas with material fluency, visual resonance and cultural reflection. This is a most profound expression of what is both sensitive and assertive, and how shifts in thinking present the critical vision in the position of authorship.
The Resistant Gesture encompasses many forms, media and methods of demarcation. It is by a subtle stroke, a tender indication or by placing roles of authority in humorous indignation, that new voices precede new ways of thinking. And, how the act of making itself becomes oppositional to an ordinary experience.
