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Narrator: Rashid Johnson’s "Cosmic Slop “Bitter,”" from 2015, features a solid black surface just over 6 feet high by 8 feet wide, marked by deep cuts and grooves. If we were to touch this surface, our fingers would dance and skip over cracks and crevices, like peaks and valleys in a barren post-volcanic landscape, newly created after a lava flow.

We might also be surprised at its waxy feeling in contrast to the rough appearance of the surface. Johnson uses black soap and wax, which he melts and then manipulates through cutting and digging, etching deep slashes and scratches before it fully hardens. More than simply mark-making, Johnson relates his process to a performance, transforming and layering meaning to this everyday household material.

Black soap itself is said to have transformative and healing properties, particularly in West Africa. It cleanses us on the surface but tastes bitter, a contradiction noted in the artwork’s title, "Cosmic Slop “Bitter.”" The color and title also reference a 1973 song by Parliament Funkadelic and allude to the pain Black bodies have endured, scars both visible and beneath the surface.

What contradictory emotions might we encounter with this work?

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Description of Cosmic Slop "Bitter", 2021

Access a slow-looking exercise of this work. 

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Narrator: Shinique Smith uses reclaimed clothing, ribbon, and yarn in this installation from 2021. It stretches vertically from ceiling to floor, just over 10 feet tall, and varying in width between a few inches along most of the piece to a section in the middle about 2 feet in diameter. There is an element of storytelling in the title, "She Waited Secretly, Between Shadow and Soul," that invites us to observe closely. 

The bulk of this fabric sculpture dangles in the center about 6 feet above the gallery floor, hanging from the ceiling by a thin stretch of cord and ribbon, which seems to tenuously support its weight. Another stretch of thin ribbon hangs below the bulky center and supports a smaller mass of fabric at the bottom, resting delicately on the gallery floor. The central piece is about 2 feet in diameter while the smaller bottom piece is just over several inches wide. What appears to be a single ribbon supporting both ends of this artwork is in fact several smaller pieces tied or braided together to create a continuous line. This gives it the illusion of a thread that is actively being pulled apart and starting to fray along the edges—as if at any moment it could snap or tear.

The bulky fabric sections at the center and bottom of the installation are constructed similarly, made from clothing from personal and intimate sources. From afar, it appears to be composed of black and orange fabric, tightly compacted and bound together into a bulbous mass. Upon closer look, it’s evident that all the fabric is the same: a black color that has been bleached in places, creating drips and splotches of orange tones scattered throughout. The bulbous orange-and-black mass is contained by thin black and gold ribbons, cords, and threads unevenly wrapped several times around the mass, so what would have been a circular shape is now a series of lumps and bulges, like flesh spilling over a tightened belt.
 
The relation of these two bulky sections resembles a pendulum clock, with a larger central timepiece and a smaller pendulum that might dangle and swing like a counterweight. It leaves us wondering about the relationship between them and their reference to cross-cultural traditions, including swaddling babies, wrapping gifts, body binding, and tying into devotional objects. How might Smith’s use of worn clothing—personal and intimate—transform the material into a symbol of care for bodies and the ecological environment?

Description of she waited secretly, between shadow and soul, 2021

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Narrator: This work by Danh Vo from 2013 is titled "Lot 20. Two Kennedy Administration Cabinet Room Chairs." The sculptural work hangs vertically on the gallery wall and initially appears like a single enormous piece of leather, extending around 6 feet long and about 3 feet at its widest point. It is draped in folds like a curtain. The surface that would have covered the chair seats and backs is dark black with a glossy sheen, reflecting the light at various angles while remaining shadowed within the deep folds. On the reverse side, the leather is a light tan color with a softer texture, like unfinished suede. The majority of the visible surface is black, with just a few sections at the top revealing the tan underbelly when the leather is folded over.

From a distance the black leather surface looks smooth and unblemished. Upon closer inspection, small circular indentations are visible along the edges where metal rivets would have secured it to a chair frame. Some of the corners are aged and cracked while others are torn and ragged. Remnants of white stuffing where the leather was ripped from the chair are still visible in a small oval shape on the suede underside.

This allusion to the violence of skinning a slaughtered animal and hanging it like a trophy is also reflected in the political history of the period and Vo’s family history of fleeing violence during the Vietnam War.

How do objects bear witness to history? How does the way these former chairs are presented affect our perception of the past?

Description of Lot 20. Two Kennedy Administration Cabinet Room Chairs, 2013

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Narrator: "Untitled (Black & Black)" is a work by Pier Paolo Calzolari from 1986. The full installation measures nearly 8 feet high by 8 feet wide and extends 2 feet from the gallery wall. The dimensions of each component are varied within that frame. The piece is composed of two sections, one hanging vertically on the wall about two feet above the other, which runs horizontally along the gallery floor. A single copper pipe stretches down from the section on the wall to reach the ground section, the only connector between them.

The wall section includes a jet-black panel hanging vertically, about 8 feet high by 2 feet wide. A thin gray sheet of lead is attached to each edge of the panel where it protrudes out from the wall; they are wrinkled, demonstrating their malleability. Along the left edge of the panel, not one but many layers of lead sheets are stacked together, tightly packed like gills. They are difficult to identify because they are thickly covered with layers of brilliant white frost, sparkling and glittering as it catches the gallery light. At the base of this left side of the panel a pipe extends down to a small refrigeration unit humming on the gallery floor below the work. 

The ground section of this work is about 8 feet long by 2 feet wide made of long lead sheets laid horizontally along the floor against the gallery wall. A chalky white powder is scattered along its dark gray surface in shapes that appear to have formed organically, as if saltwater pools had collected and then evaporated. A small motor sits on the far-left edge of the lead sheet, adjacent to a black compressor with a rounded top and a cooling structure contained within a rectangular metal box. This is surrounded by copper evaporator and condenser coils, which are attached to the lower-left corner of the wall panel and cause the freezing process. The whole unit is about 2 feet square, as if a refrigerator’s inner workings were removed and repurposed for use here. Calzolari’s interest in organic materials and chemical and physical transformation is evident in this artwork and reflective of Arte Povera, an Italian art movement of which he was a member. 

The contradictory nature of salt, necessary for life and yet deadly in large doses, is mirrored in the polar opposites of black and white, and absence and presence of color throughout the artwork. Both refrigeration and salt are intended to preserve things but through very different processes. Salt is a natural preservative, while refrigeration works through a chemical process of transforming a liquid into a gas, and this evaporation cools the surrounding area. 

While made of unique materials, this work evokes a minimal vertical painting in deep black with a vibrant strip of white along its left side. Calzolari was drawn to frost as a luminous material. In his own words, “I saw how this sort of absolute, unparalleled whiteness had the capacity to constantly renew itself... and be something that was not just white, but rather a sort of pulsation.” Why might Calzolari have titled this artwork "Untitled (Black & Black)" when the color white is so essentially present in the frost and evoked through Calzolari’s use of salt before being burned black?

Description of Untitled (Black & Black), 2021

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Founded as Austria’s first public museum in 1811, the Universalmuseum Joanneum presents a broad range of art, culture and the natural sciences at twelve architecturally valuable locations. 

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