In the exhibition “I’m Fence To” Nathaniel Donnett climbs over into the greener side and upsets the balance of societal divisions. Beginning from the most literal point by using as canvas actual fence
United States of America (Press Release) September 30, 2007 --
Nathaniel Donnett
I'm Fence To
There is a fence going up between Texas and Mexico. There are concrete barriers dividing Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods in Iraq. The great levees protecting New Orleans became its undoing.
In the words of CEE-Lo Green (Pre Gnarls Barkley)
“I wonder if the gate was put up to keep crime out or keep our ass in”
Such is the problem of separation. Antiseptic spaces yearn for funk. A cluttered studio cries out for organization. In the exhibition “I’m Fence To” at Redbud Gallery, Nathaniel Donnett climbs over into the greener side and upsets the balance of societal divisions. Beginning from the most literal point by using as canvas actual fence sections, Donnett crowds each piece with signifiers of inclusion and exclusion, and pulls out narratives that describe physical and spiritual travels between time and space. Contrasting the collective black ancestral past with his contemporary experience, these are stories about the angst of loss and forced partitions. The African Diaspora and the residual trauma of the middle passage are the jumping off point for many of the works but there is also an awareness of the loss to the larger collective humanity brought about by “good fences”. Fences here can be the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, Heavenly Gates, or even the division of different languages. Donnett lays out these narratives with a heavy use of found materials. He is an avid collector of detritus and makes good use of his accumulations. Sneakers, branches, wooden blocks, wire, rope, old clothes and a multitude of other materials, are filtered through some unacknowledged ritual, and melded into altar-like assemblages. The strength in these works is the subtle and almost hidden juxtapositions of objects found in various moments within each piece. Peer for a moment into a light box portrait of a young boy, and your eyes adjust to a series of toys stuffed into its corners. Follow the photo montage of newly constructed town homes pushing aside a landscape of shotgun houses and you end at a pillow resting on the gallery floor. Collectively these works operate as an essay on the tragedy of the human capacity for segregation. Donnett outlines the outcome of such an approach to life. Not ending on a sad note however, the title itself self gives a glimpse of possibility. When spoken in the black vernacular “I’m fence to” offers up the chance to redeem ourselves from our innate behaviors, says that at any moment we recover our senses and remove the dividers between us.
I'm Fence To
There is a fence going up between Texas and Mexico. There are concrete barriers dividing Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods in Iraq. The great levees protecting New Orleans became its undoing.
In the words of CEE-Lo Green (Pre Gnarls Barkley)
“I wonder if the gate was put up to keep crime out or keep our ass in”
Such is the problem of separation. Antiseptic spaces yearn for funk. A cluttered studio cries out for organization. In the exhibition “I’m Fence To” at Redbud Gallery, Nathaniel Donnett climbs over into the greener side and upsets the balance of societal divisions. Beginning from the most literal point by using as canvas actual fence sections, Donnett crowds each piece with signifiers of inclusion and exclusion, and pulls out narratives that describe physical and spiritual travels between time and space. Contrasting the collective black ancestral past with his contemporary experience, these are stories about the angst of loss and forced partitions. The African Diaspora and the residual trauma of the middle passage are the jumping off point for many of the works but there is also an awareness of the loss to the larger collective humanity brought about by “good fences”. Fences here can be the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, Heavenly Gates, or even the division of different languages. Donnett lays out these narratives with a heavy use of found materials. He is an avid collector of detritus and makes good use of his accumulations. Sneakers, branches, wooden blocks, wire, rope, old clothes and a multitude of other materials, are filtered through some unacknowledged ritual, and melded into altar-like assemblages. The strength in these works is the subtle and almost hidden juxtapositions of objects found in various moments within each piece. Peer for a moment into a light box portrait of a young boy, and your eyes adjust to a series of toys stuffed into its corners. Follow the photo montage of newly constructed town homes pushing aside a landscape of shotgun houses and you end at a pillow resting on the gallery floor. Collectively these works operate as an essay on the tragedy of the human capacity for segregation. Donnett outlines the outcome of such an approach to life. Not ending on a sad note however, the title itself self gives a glimpse of possibility. When spoken in the black vernacular “I’m fence to” offers up the chance to redeem ourselves from our innate behaviors, says that at any moment we recover our senses and remove the dividers between us.
Email
Print
SPAM
