Noel W Anderson
Sunday, 12 December 2021
Work from Blak Origin Movement.
“Blak Origin Moment is a solo exhibition of works by the Louisville, Kentucky-born, New York-based artist Noel W Anderson. The exhibition and book delve into Anderson’s ongoing exploration of the history of black consciousness as he wrestles with the legacies of images, events, and materials.
In a practice that continues to conceptually evolve, Anderson has become known for his investigations into the make-up of black male identity via the medium of textiles. From rugs to mechanically produced tapestries, he weaves a spectrum of fibres with appropriated images and objects, used for just long enough to fray their edges and challenge legibility.
Blak Origin Moment continues this course as Anderson pushes his study into the fraught post-Ferguson era of Black Lives Matter and heightened racial tensions in the United States. Prompted by the provocative question “When did you know you were black?” he collects oral, visual and artifact-based histories to ultimately restructure the origin and genealogy of black consciousness. His works attempt to locate an elusive black essence by way of images, sound, and objects which, for Anderson, “evoke moments where racial recognition is heightened”, but resolution is deferred.
The series was first exhibited at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (February 10 – June 18, 2017), curated by Steven Matijcio.
The second iteration of the work was exhibited recently at the Hunter Museum of American Art (Chattanooga, TN) (October 11, 2019 – January 12, 2020).” – Noel W Anderson