'Plantation' review - The Item - Sumter

Exhibitions provoke discussion, reflection
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
By Jane G. Collins - Special to The Item

Colin Quashie's "Faces of Color: John" can be viewed at the Sumter County Gallery of Art through Jan. 11.
The two current Sumter Gallery of Art's exhibits - Colin Quashie's "The Plantation (Plan-ta-shun)" and Fahamu Pecou's "Native Sun" - are not for the fainthearted or people with single-sided vision. They afford, however, provocative situations for discussion and reflection.

I am "treading on eggshells" when I suggest leaving preconceived notions at home, recalling that the very act of depolarization has, in some ways, led to greater polarization, whether it be music, art, politics, ethnicity, body types or even clothing. Quashie believes that nobody really wants to discuss slavery or confront the real issues; no one really is comfortable with the topic. His intent is to encourage discussion and acknowledgement of the impact of plantation life. The issues go way beyond slavery.

Quashie's often acerbic humor gains strength thorough his concept of suggesting what plantation life would have been like IF it had the advantages of today's media marketing (or what it would be like in today's society).

Be prepared to read as well as visually respond, for his use of sarcasm, satire and irony are reinforced through both avenue.

The three paintings at the Ackerman entrance proclaim Quashie's skill. They represent the present and his neighbors and lead the focus into the relationship of the past to the present and people's connection to the past. His delicate portraits are fused with the background - present with the past - and avoid forcing the eye to see past layers of paint or complex technique to respond to the three. The large drawing at the end of the aisle invites the viewer into the plantation while the two "Resumes," taken from archival advertisements for runaway slaves, suggest his clever irony.

In today's society, there seems to be a magazine for everything from makeup to motorcycles, travel to trash. Quashie's IF concept is projected in "Plantation Digest," a publication every plantation owner would have enjoyed. The topics are filled with sarcasm, yet an honest assessment of issues which often faced plantation owners. The ads visually increase his concern of the seriousness of his topics: "Look Solid with Stripes" features a slave whose back has been severely whipped, and, as on several pages, is sponsored by "J. Crow" (yes, the pun is intended). "Tradition White Is Timeless" with the starched white tux shirt and black noose tie is a fitting foil for editor William Lynch's comment on the master's nighttime strolls. Of course, the FLED EX and Harriet Tubman Twitter (and the website DunceKKKap) ads further satirize the benefit of modern communication to plantation life. Even the pull-out perfume strip for Mandingo - a helpful way to scent out African deserters - and the address label project the aura of "seriousness."

Equally as provocative and evocative are his "Plantation Properties" - remember "The future is right behind you " - and his "Plantation Palette." There is no avoiding the issue in his "Savory," sponsored by the Bar-B Crew. Just like paint swatches from Lowe's, there are even degrees of hues and tints. His carefully reworked Monopoly game and coloring book add to the message. Quashie's pieces emphasize his desire for a "reality check." In his "Rainbro Row," he alludes to the false history perpetuated by connecting Rainbow Row in Charleston to the "glorious past," since it really wasn't even in existence until the buildings were painted the pastel colors, according to Quashie, in 1917 in an effort to clean up the neighborhood.

When he was stopped by a drawbridge several years ago, Quashie looked toward the McLeod plantation and saw a row of whitewashed houses. What if they were colored in pastels? Then would more people be drawn to the real history of the area? Another important painting is his Louis Vuitton/slave picture on the back side of the "Resumes." Both figures are moving rapidly, one with a noose around his neck and the other "toting" a brief case. However, both seem to be making no progress: they move, but always in the same direction and the same awkward movement.

Quashie often gives color to the present and relegates the past to black and white. In the delicate portrait in the hall, the gentleman in the rumpled blue suit is dignified by his white hair and erect posture. He is wearing his best. The woman in the background in black and white represents the past. The artist admits that the desk, blackboard and notepad are important to his goal. He is hoping that people will take time to acknowledge the topic, to confront the reality, and to work toward the truth of the times.

Pecou's paintings are lively, colorful and strong. Since he uses himself as the focal vehicle, at first glance the exhibit seems less controversial. However, he implies much about perception and preconceived notions, particularly about the black male, in today's society. Using himself as an allegory for people's preconceived notions of the black male mystique, Pecou creates a visual discussion, his own slender shape an interesting contrast to the strong, muscular stereotype.

"Shades" dominate many of the pictures. There is the blatant "in your face" smoky haze in "Irony," part of Pecou's "All that Glitters Ain't Goals" series. The humorous posture in his "Stupoman," complete with cape, the covers for "Efface the Nation Art Books for Blak Presidential," with the glasses, cigar and mustache and the figure seeming to search for his identity in "Baby Boi" colorfully reveal his "parody on our obsession with celebrity, our exploitation of black masculinity and the divide that racial ignorance and stereotypes perpetuate." The "HVY Weight Chump" and "Role Model Citizen WWSDay" further encourage the viewer to rethink the concept of typical black males and what motivates both the culture and perception.

"Shiny Things" and "Lush" focus on the male form loaded with "typical" black male accessories - glasses, smokes, tons of jewelry. Yet "Lush" seems to push the negativity - he is sporting more chains with skulls and other "hood" and "gang" symbols; in the background is the muted shape of a liquor bottle forming the statement "RIP," a specific indictment of where this type behavior often leads black males.

Pecou also uses black and white contrast to suggest time and relationship. "When We Were Kings" and "You Don't Know the Half of It" cleverly use the technique as discourse for position, power and potential problems. His video "i/EGRESS/ion" includes a somewhat tongue-in-cheek visual of his trying to put on the mantle of masculinity and rise to the stereotypical occasion.

The two exhibits work well together. Although their artistic styles seem different, Quashie and Pecou communicate important concerns of culture and perception, especially about the black's role in history and society and differing cultural viewpoints. The exhibits encourage contemplation and soul searching through creative and well articulated art.

The Sumter County Gallery of Art, 200 Hasell St., Sumter, presents exhibitions by Colin Quashie and Fahamu Pecou from Nov. 9 to Jan. 11, 2013. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1:30 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call (803) 775-0543 for more information.

The Item - Sumter Article

2 exhibitions at Sumter gallery examine black experience
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
From Staff reporters

It may be difficult to spot Colin Quashie's second-story studio if you aren't explicitly looking for it. An indistinct C and Q pasted to a glass door are the only clues that something else goes on in this standalone brick-and-concrete building on Upper King Street besides the haircuts that take place in the first-floor barber shop. It doesn't help that the logo gives a better impression of a cloud than a formal set of initials, the puffy and bulbous letters joined together in a cartoonish fashion. So instead, a better sign of what happens on the second story may be in the downstairs shop, where one of Quashie's works hangs on a wall near the wide windows.

Both artists in the new exhibitions at the Sumter County Gallery of Art examine cultural issues related to the black experience in America through images of the past and the present. Charleston resident Colin Quashie's "The Plantation (Plan-ta-shun)" and Atlanta-based Fahamu Pecou's "Native Son: Fahamu Pecou, 2009 to Now" open Friday with a 5:30 to 7 p.m. reception.

Quashie's mixed-media show examines the way "the South glorifies the past," while avoiding the subject of slavery.

"The Plantation is not about slavery," he explained. "No one, black or white, wants to talk about slavery. Instead, the show deals with different aspects of plantation life, the pros and the cons. Ultimately, it is about the past and the present.

"As far as they (some Charlestonians) are concerned, the past isn't the past. It's still the present. So that's what we market, that's what we sell, but we do it in a lot of different ways, and plantations are a mirror of that. Plantations are in the present, but they reflect the past, and depending on your sensibilities and the way you look at the plantation system tells a lot about what your sensibilities are."

The exhibition does have a "softer side," Quashie said, "both in meaning and in presentation. ... I realized I was kind of getting out there a little bit as far as the cynicism was concerned, and so I wanted to pull it back in, because the bottom line is I also wanted to talk about who were the real people who lived on these plantations ... ."

Quashie was born in London, England, in 1963 and raised in the West Indies. When he was 6, his parents immigrated to the United States and settled in Daytona Beach, Fla. He briefly attended the University of Florida on a full academic scholarship and then joined the Navy as a submarine Sonarman. He has also worked as a comedy sketch writer on "Mad TV" and six other comedy series. He was an associate producer on an independent feature film and in 2001 received an Emmy award for documentary writing. He lives in Charleston, where he paints while developing work for television and freelancing as a graphic artist.

Pecou is an American painter, performer and video artist based in Atlanta. His work utilizes self-portraiture to challenge and dissect society's representation of black masculinity in popular culture today, said gallery director Karen Watson. "An early and ongoing ruse includes a series of paintings featuring the covers of art magazines bearing his likeness - and how these images come to define black men across generational, geographical and economic boundaries."

Pecou said his work "can be viewed as meditations on contemporary popular culture. I began my career experimenting with practices employed in contemporary branding strategies, particularly as they pertained to hip-hop music. These experiments ultimately led me to question not only the stereotypes that drive consumerism, fame, celebrity-worship etc., but how an unspoken racial and cultural divide often influenced these factors.

"I appear in my work not in an autobiographical sense, but as an allegory. My character becomes a stand-in to represent black masculinity and both the realities and fantasies projected from and onto black male bodies. I seek to challenge the expectations around black men and, to a larger extent, society in general. Adopting the traits typically associated with black men in hip hop, I appropriate their more popular associations and distort or exaggerate them by placing them within a fine art context. The end result is a parody on our obsession with celebrity, our exploitation of black masculinity and the divide that racial ignorance and stereotypes perpetuate. These ideas are expressed in paintings, videos and live performances. Each medium allows me to articulate various nuances around my themes and further distort the assumptions we tend to make about one another."

Pecou grew up in Hartsville and has been featured in several solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad. His work has been reviewed and featured in numerous publications.

Both artists have been awarded prestigious residencies and have exhibited widely. In fall 2012, Pecou exhibited a series of new work: "All Dat Glitters Ain't Goals" at the Lyon-Weir Gallery in New York City. The show in Sumter, his first in South Carolina, includes several pieces from the NY show.

Watson observed that it has been a few years since SCGA has had two challenging exhibitions such as these. She expressed confidence in the sophistication of the audience in Sumter as well as beyond, "to be able to view and discuss provocative art and perhaps come away with a better understanding and appreciation of how historical, social and psychological forces shape our individual lives in different ways."

Pecou will give an artist talk following Friday's reception, to which the public is invited. Gallery members are admitted free, non-members for $5.

With public funding still greatly reduced because of the economy, Watson noted, the gallery "would not be able to present important exhibitions like these without the support of businesses and individuals who support SCGA's efforts to offer a wider art world to the citizens of Sumter. Special thanks to SAFE Federal Credit Union, DeAnne and Elielson Messais, Palmer Memorial Chapel, Rep. and Mrs. J. David Weeks and Carolina Diabetes & Kidney Center for making this show possible."

With public funding still greatly reduced because of the economy, Watson noted, the gallery "would not be able to present important exhibitions like these without the support of businesses and individuals who support SCGA's efforts to offer a wider art world to the citizens of Sumter. Special thanks to SAFE Federal Credit Union, DeAnne and Elielson Messais, Palmer Memorial Chapel, Rep. and Mrs. J. David Weeks and Carolina Diabetes & Kidney Center for making this show possible."

The Sumter County Gallery of Art, 200 Hasell St., Sumter, presents exhibitions by Colin Quashie and Fahamu Pecou from Nov. 9 to Jan. 11, 2013. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1:30 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call (803) 775-0543 for more information.

Why artists do what they do...

I recently received an email that I want to share with you:
Good evening,
I am Annie Purvis, former student of Herb Parker's (interactive sculpture installation artist) and Arts Educator & Fine Arts Director at Lincoln-Middle High School in McClellanville, SC. I always look for interesting (thought provoking imagery) exhibits to take my rural art students to and we found your Plantation exhibit provided just that! It was amazing!

I have one picture of my student in front of your work. I thought you might like to have it. She was hypnotized by it. I use it as our face book cover photo. I love your work!! Feel free to use it or any others from our art page. Students parents have signed publishing agreement for school arts program promotions-we are trying to save our little school. Enjoy! and Thank you for your amazing work, it is so refreshing to see this in Charleston.

I don't make much money with my art and don't really give a shit about that. What I do care about is this image - having the ability to pass along a little something through my art to others the way it was passed along to me. I never take for granted that sacred honor and hope that I have humbly done my little part to inspire at least one who in turn will carry on and make my talent pale in comparison to what they accomplish in the future.