Sondra Perry: Resident Evil
Archived Event
No Longer Showing.
In 1971, Sun Ra said "Black people need a mythocracy, not a democracy because they'll never make it in history.…Truth is not permissible for me to use because I'm not righteous and holy, I'm evil, that's because I'm black and I'm not subscribed to any types of righteousness." Sondra Perry's new video installation examines this active disinterest in the respectability that blackness has been perpetually asked to earn by white culture, providing a site in which her work, as well its viewers, can begin to reimagine standing value systems and moral structures. Through the lens of the Alien movie franchise— one which has been providing allegories of colonialism and mutability for decades—Perry's work asks: how do agents of power behave when their subjects become absolutely unpredictable, fluidly inhabiting societal norms in order to destroy them? How can these defiantly multiplicitous subjects be watched? And how is veracity redefined by this surveillance? Curated by Lumi Tan.
Opening reception: Wednesday, November 2, 6–8pm
November 2–December 10, 2016
Sondra Perry: Resident Evil is made possible with support from Jerome Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and in part by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Lead image: Cat Frazier and Jesse Howard in rotation, 2016
GIF commission by Cat Frazier, with text by Jesse Howard.
Installation images by Jason Mandella.
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