Acknowledgement: The Historic Polyrhythm of Being(s)
On view through August 31, 2020
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH)
Houston, Texas
www.camh.org
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) is pleased to present “Acknowledgement: The Historic Polyrhythm of Being(s)”, a newly commissioned public art installation by Houston-based artist Nathaniel Donnett, as part of the Museum’s new “Beyond CAMH” initiative series. The community-engaging work is located upon more than 120 feet of construction fencing surrounding the Museum’s front lawn during its ongoing capital campaign renovations. Initiated through a backpack exchange with the youth of Houston’s Third, Fourth, and Fifth Wards, the text- and object-based artwork acknowledges and reflects the importance of history, education, family, and visibility in these communities and Black American social life.The artwork comprises a 120-foot pre-existing fence, upon which is printed imagined words and phrases common to the aforementioned neighborhoods, and a series of backpacks mounted on the fence. Some of the backpacks contain photographs taken by the artist and objects collected from these three neighborhoods, which reference Nkisi power figures of the Congo and the notion of being both present and not present at the same time. At night, the backpacks are illuminated with lights that continuously pulse in Morse code, the phrase “A Love Supreme” from the John Coltrane song “Acknowledgement,” an excerpt from a James Baldwin’s essay “The Uses of the Blues,” and a verse from the song “Mad” by singer-songwriter Solange.
The work will remain on view—day and night—through August 31, 2020.
Image: Partial installation view of “Acknowledgement: The Historic Polyrhythm of Being(s)” at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Photo by Andrew Buckler.
