William Pope.L is one of America's premier artists, with a rich multidisciplinary art practise that has for close to 30 years commented on culture, poverty, race, humiliation and waste. Claiming to be the ‘ friendliest black artist in America ', Pope.L continues to confound and conflate the public's expectations as he negotiates the history of our troubled relationship to the instrumentalizing of social categories.
Once described as being a ‘ a poet of the abject ' by Holland Cotter of the New York Times, Pope.L has over the years presented us with a diverse and unclassifiable practise made up of drawing, sculpture, performance and installations.
Projects included within ‘some things you can do with blackness...' include the Black Factory Products , Skin Set Drawings , Bronco Pops and Chocolate Fountain - an installation work that will occupy the whole of the ground floor of the gallery. The Skin Set Drawings are made on simple graph paper using pen, marker, coffee and whiteout. Pope.L uses the text the same way he uses the chocolate oozing down the wall – a mark to call our attention to the irrationality of social categories. In Bronco Pops , plaster miniatures of the vehicle owned by American black sports star and alleged murderer O.J. Simpson are inserted with popsicle sticks and arranged on the floor.
In the performance presented during the exhibition, White Room #4 / Wittgenstein & My Brother Frank , Pope.L spends two hours a day, for three days, attempting to re-write from memory Wittgenstein's ‘On Color' and his brother Frank's ideas on power and representation. The artist is dressed in a bright orange yeti suit while writing the text directly onto a wooden table with a microphone pen.
Projects such as his ongoing Black Factory tour provide us with the opportunity to rethink what makes us different. The Black Factory is built to fit inside a panel truck, and travels - seeding difference wherever it is needed. During the tour items of ‘blackness,' anything from ladies shoes to hair products, are donated by the public. These objects are systematically pulverized by the three member crew, then remade, repackaged into Black Factory Products (such as bottled water, rubber duckies, or Black Factory Powders ), and put back on sale. This gathering of individuals and objects is not about blackness, it is a meeting of perspectives and differences.
One of the Black Factory products is the Twice Sold line of tinned foods. These items – working class foods, the lowest cost brand of beans, mayonnaise, tomato sauce, etc – are purchased at the local supermarket, sealed with a golden Black Factory label, and signed and dated by the artist. The products are then sold (for the second time) at art-world prices ranging from £100-£300 each. The proceeds go to local charitable organizations that provide support for underserved communities.
some things you can do with blackness...' is William Pope.L's first solo show in the UK and only the second time he has presented his practise to the British public, the first occasion was at Tate Modern's ‘Live Culture' talks in 2003, at which his whole presentation was conducted in a bastard form of ‘Klingon', a dialect borrowed from the Star Trek films. Given free run of the expansive two-floor space of Kenny Schachter ROVE, Pope.L gives us the opportunity to not just read but feel his message, a message more mixed than straight and frequently partnered with an absurd sense of humour that seduces the audience into the dis-comfort zone that exists between categories.
- To accompany the show ROVE has published a limited edition illustrated catalogue, including essays from the artist, art historian and critic Elizabeth Bard and Nato Thompson, associate curator at MASS MoCA. To order the catalogue please email simon@rovetv.net
- For press images please contact Simon Parris on +44 (0)7789 348 584 or simon@rovetv.net
- ‘some things you can do with blackness...' will be the last show at Kenny Schachter ROVE's current location on Hoxton Square. We will be opening shortly on Britannia Street WC1 close to the Gagosian gallery.
William Pope.L's participation is courtesy of The Project, New York and Los Angeles, USA
