This exhibit had me at ‘Song of the South’ which I remember seeing as a child and not realizing he was a slave. I would like to rewatch it but Disney has it in the vault but I do remember the song … ‘Zippity doo dah’
I will be heading to Malibu for the DEPART Foundation exhibition of New York-based artist Chase Hall in Saturday-Mornings. Mr. Hall is a self-taught artist who uses art to examine racial history in the United States with ‘time honored’ racial stereotypes from the ‘happy slave’ to ‘mammy’ caricatures. These racist images have a negative impact for people of African descent playing into a stereotype that generates ‘fear of black men’, ‘welfare queens’, that black kids are adults and treated as such as well as the hyper sexualization of black bodies. Often we do not see a counter balance of positive portrayals or stories of black people so people in the USA and abroad often only see the negative.
His decision to use art to reveal how the racist images have morphed into a more palpable display doesn’t lessen the impact these are found in children’s literature/school books, tv, movies and advertising. Saturday-Mornings will be displayed at the Depart Foundation Malibu Village in a dedicated project space for Hall’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. This will also be a homecoming for the artist since he spent part of his childhood in the beach community.
Hall has lived all across the USA and in Dubai giving him a unique view of how people view black bodies. He is now based in New York’s East Village where he uses a variety of art styles to bring his vision of race and the African American experience to his art. His art despite the serious subject has such joy and movement that it is provokes thought at it’s beauty and ideas. Hall calls them a “Trojan Horse of racism,” where he is able to get people looking and talking with a somewhat cartoon whimsical look that is influenced by animation, film and TV (entertainment) that most people can better understand by how it effects them as individuals. You may have seen his other exhibits of photography representing New York in ‘snapshots’ of the other side of the city but Saturday-Mornings is the next chapter in this artists display of how he sees the world. Almost from a Saturday morning cartoon series that often didn’t reflect African Americans and when they did it was an offensive stereotype kids would laugh at not realizing the impact.
Saturday-Mornings will present a series of new paintings alongside a video work by Hall exploring existing caricatural representations of African American identity from the present through the past. By looking to character types like the “mammy,” the “Uncle Remus,” the mistral, the jester, the addict, the puppet, or the fool, revealing just how widespread and available these ‘types’ have been in the visual landscape, Hall addresses the culturally impoverishing effect these impersonations have had on communities from within and without. Seldom depicted as hero or protagonist, the narratives available in the depiction of race are few.
CHASE HALL
Born in 1993 and raised across Minnesota, Chicago, Las Vegas, Colorado, Dubai and Malibu, Chase lives and works out of his studio in the East Village of New York. He has been included in exhibitions with: IMMA Project Space in Ireland, Cob Gallery in London, Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, Moms favorite in Los Angeles, Sheridan in the Bronx, Edward Minskoff Project Space in NYC, among others. He has released the publications: Gaucho, Come, Irie Jesus, Mug, Milk and Honey, Milk and Honey II. His work was awarded “The Best VICE Photos of 2016” and his artwork has been featured in: Vice, Vogue, LOVE, Munchies, Arteviste, Patter, COEVAL and Dazed.
DEPART Foundation
DEPART Foundation provides an alternative platform for creative experimentation and exploration, set within a global context, that thrives outside of conventional, cultural structures. The impact of its work can best be understood as the charting of new artistic destinations with every project and program it undertakes.
Since its founding in 2008, DEPART Foundation has served as a catalyst for the Italian art and cultural community, strengthening the dialogue between Italy and the international art world. DEPART Foundation has actively encouraged artistic production through sponsorship of young and established artists and the provision of space and resources conducive to research, production and exhibition of new work, and to the presentation of educational and public programs.
Some of the most interesting and dynamic artists of our time, from around the world, have been presented for the first time in Rome by DEPART Foundation. They include Cory Arcangel, Joe Bradley, Nate Lowman, Ryan McGinley, Tauba Auerbach, Darren Bader, Louis Eisner, Roe Ethridge, Sam Falls, Mark Flood, Elias Hansen, Brendan Lynch, Oscar Murillo, Sarah Braman, Seth Price, Jon Rafman, Stephen G. Rhodes, Amanda Ross-Ho, Sterling Ruby, Lucien Smith, Valerie Snobeck and Frances Stark. Since 2014, DEPART Foundation Los Angeles has presented solo exhibitions for Gabriele de Santis, Kour Pour, Grear Patterson, Petra Cortright, Mark Horowitz, Giorgio Andreotta Calo, Cameron Platter, Edward S. Curtis, Ulay, and Michael Pybus.
The first West Coast Solo Chase Hall Solo Exhibition examines the visual history of racial bigotry in the United States. The exhibit is open to the public from November 17 to December 31, 2017.
EXHIBITION CONCURRENTLY ON VIEW WITH SEA SICK IN PARADISE,
NOW EXTENDED UNTIL NOVEMBER 30, 2017
DEPART Foundation Malibu Village
Suite 3844, 3822 Cross Creek Rd, Malibu, CA 90265
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