VIDEO INSTALLATION AT SOURCE THEATRE
SUBVERSIONS
CulturalDC is partnering with Baltimore-based curator Teri Henderson to present a two-part video exhibition that explores divisiveness in democratic countries and the history of racial injustices within the United States. The exhibit, “SUBVERSIONS,” will be projected onto the windows of CulturalDC’s Source Theatre in the historic 14th and U Street Corridor in Northwest Washington, D.C.
Subversions, Part 1: Exploring Power and Place
“Given the fact that millions of artists are being prevented from working due to the inaction of government, arts organizations cannot sit idly by during this upcoming election, said Kristi Maiselman, Executive Director of CulturalDC. “It is crucial that local arts groups, like CulturalDC, actively participate in democracy and offer platforms to diverse artists like Miguel Braceli and Teri Henderson. While we’re unable to host our community inside, we’re offering the outside of Source Theatre as a public place of reflection and mobilization.”
Oct. 30 – Nov. 30, 2020; NIGHTLY FROM 6:00-10:00p.m. AT CULTURALDC’S SOURCE THEATRE, 1835 14th St., NW
The first video, “UNITED IN DEMOCRACY: Polarization is a weapon for the perpetuation of power,” is a geopolitical game by artist Miguel Braceli. This video is part of Braceli’s “Geopolitics of the body,” a series of performances that creates dialogue between people and place, inviting reflections on issues of migration, national identity and social fractures.
Miguel Braceli’s video installation highlights unity in a time where divisiveness is rampant and seemingly perpetuated by the U.S. government. Braceli’s participatory project “UNITED IN DEMOCRACY” embraces diversity and defeats polarization.
The video portrays participants of various races, genders and classes united through play. With people tossing red and blue balls to one another across different distances, Braceli’s video offers a unique take on American recreation. The installation builds the idea of a nation from the exchange of our own actions: trying to keep the ball in the air and the game alive.
SUBVERSIONS Part 2: “As An Enemy”
January 29 - February 28, 6-9pm at Source Theatre
SUBVERSIONS Part Two: “As An Enemy” is a multichannel video installation showing the corruption of the Baltimore City Police Department. Curated in collaboration with Baltimore based writer Brandon Soderberg, “As An Enemy” offers a stark microcosm of so many corrupt police forces across the country. The exhibition creates space for the victims of police brutality by telling the unique story of Black men and women victimized by the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF)—a plainclothes police squad, led by the diabolical Wayne Jenkins, established to maintain the racist legacy of “law and order” in Baltimore City, following the 2015 murder of Freddie Gray. In response to Gray’s murder—during which Baltimore Police officers broke his spine and crushed his throat—the city erupted in weeks of proper protest and righteous outrage. In response to that outrage from citizens, the GTTF terrorized Baltimoreans—stealing money and drugs, while causing violence, terror and death. They often targeted known drug dealers, knowing their cries of injustice would be ignored by the judicial system.
The story of the GTTF is chronicled in “I Got A Monster: The Rise And Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad” by Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg. The book was a major inspiration for the “As An Enemy.” The exhibition also features footage from a documentary (directed by Kevin Abrams and produced by Alpine Labs) made to accompany the book’s release, as well as three short films featuring police body camera footage from Baltimore City Police Department officers committing federal offenses created with artist Sean McTiernan. “As An Enemy” is meant to be disturbing in its truthfulness. These horrors are fact and not fiction. They are not fantastical or imaginary. The people who were affected by the actions of the GTTF were real men and women of Baltimore, whose lives were irrevocably impacted.
The first part of SUBVERSIONS featured “UNITED IN DEMOCRACY: Polarization is a weapon for the perpetuation of power,” by artist Miguel Braceli. That exhibition, curated by Teri Henderson, opened the door to questions of who gets to be considered an American, what is citizenship, and who gets to call this land home? Part Two follows up by addressing the treatment of Black citizens—descendants of men and women stolen as a part of the transatlantic slave trade hundreds of years ago—who are still the victims of racial violence, ongoing trauma, racial battle fatigue and oppression by the unrelenting and violent nature of white supremacy.
“As An Enemy” takes its title from a line spoken by Marshall “Eddie” Conway, a former leading member of the Black Panther Party, wrongfully convicted for the murder of a police officer and released after forty-four years in prison. For a moment in the exhibition, he explains how police departments evolved from slave catchers following the abolition of slavery. As we enter 2021, “As An Enemy” will run throughout Black History Month, serving as an urgent reminder to the United States government, as well as passersby, that there is a great deal of racial violence that this nation has yet to be fully addressed. Black men and women are disproportionately murdered and harassed by police officers across the country. By highlighting some factual instances of this behavior, “As An Enemy ultimately asks what this new regime of political power will do to adequately atone for the history of state-enacted racial violence, both past and present?
“As An Enemy” is for those extrajudicially murdered by cops. It is for Freddie Gray. It’s for Sandra Bland who died in Henderson’s home state of Texas. It’s for Breonna Taylor. It’s for Korryn Gaines. It's for George Floyd. And it’s for the countless other Black men and Black women who were murdered by police officers over history whose names did not become hashtags.
About Miguel Braceli
“As a Venezuelan artist living in the United States, I have wanted to approach the geopolitical implications of these two countries, studying the complexity and contradiction of their relationships, as well as the parallels that can be found in opposite systems,” said artist Branceli. “This project starts from the thesis that political polarization is a risk for democratic states, and that at its pernicious extremes debate decreases and hegemony is strengthened. ‘UNITED IN DEMOCRACY’ aims to enhance diversity and unity in the context of an electoral year, promoting the dialogue from the playfulness of a simple action of a game.”
Braceli is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of art, architecture and education. His practice focuses on participatory projects in public space. Most of these projects have been large scale works, developed in countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, México, Spain, Sweden, the United States and Venezuela. These works explore notions of borders, migrations, national identities and social-political conflicts, working from the geopolitical geography to a human scale.
He has exhibited in galleries, biennials, and important group shows in Latin America, Europe, and the U.S. Braceli is also Associate Professor in the Faculty of Architecture at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and has led participatory and educational projects with institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts of Caracas and the U.S. and Spanish embassies in Venezuela. He has been a visiting professor in Schools of Architecture from Umeå University in Sweden, Catholic University of Chile and University of Zulia in Venezuela. He is currently a Fulbright Scholar working and living in the U.S.
About Teri Henderson
“Recently it has become increasingly prevalent and relevant that we name and examine power, oppression and privilege,” said curator Henderson. “In this tumultuous period, the hopeful possibility remains that we may overcome tyranny and villainous rule by voting. In Washington, D.C., at this exhibition, we return to public art for solace, for hope, for provocation and for inspiration during this election period.”
Henderson is a curator, co-director of WDLY and staff writer for BmoreArt. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Texas Christian University. She formerly held a curatorial internship at Ghost Gallery in Seattle, Washington. She also previously served as the Art Law Clinic Director for Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. She was published in the St. James Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Culture. Her work as co-director of WDLY addresses shrinking the gap between the spaces that contemporary artists of color inhabit and the resources of the power structures of the art world through the curation and artistic production of events. She is also the Gallery Coordinator for Connect+Collect Gallery, which seeks to build relationships with artists and collectors in Baltimore and beyond. In her work as a staff writer for BmoreArt, she highlights the voices of Black, brown, queer and non-traditional artists and creatives. Most recently, Henderson founded Black Collagists, an arts incubator designed to research and collect the work of Black collage artists internationally.