ART FROM THE QUARANTINE | WEEK EIGHT | ISOLATED COLLABORATIONS
FRANK FRANCES & MARLÉNA PAVICH
This collaboration is a dialogue in collective anger; a mediation on our rage over the disgusting murder or George Floyd. Marlena and I combined collage and painting to explore our pain. American flags, law enforcement blues, and disembodied figures depict a deterioration in confidence and the hunting of the black body. During this collaboration, we spent many hours discussing our experiences, our differences, and ways to spark change in both black and white communities. Addressing the problem means talking about the problem; not shutting down uncomfortable conversations. When we are silent about race, we are in danger of reinforcing prejudice. White privilege doesn't need to be justified, but to be black we are required to justify everything. If there is a chance to have a conversation and understand our own prejudices as a nation, there may be a way to shift our direction.
As a black man I don’t want to only be identified with anger. Among many things, my job as a black artist is to be a living example of black resilience, excellence, hope, beauty, and engaging with a wonderful history before/after. What am I left to feel when constantly reminded that we, as black people, have to prove our own humanity over and over again? ALL LIFE MATTERS.
www.frankfrances.com | @frankfrancesstudio | www.marlenalikeantenna.com | @marlenalikeantenna
LAURA ZALENGA
Due to isolation I had a (color-)cooperation with my kitchen-wall while listening to 'exit-racism’ from Tupoka Ogette which made me realize once more how damn privileged that precise color makes me. So this image also stands for a promise to educated myself more about it, pay even more attention to my daily actions and animate people in my life to do the same.
GAËLLE JAUNAY-DESROCHES & GEORGIA KOKOT
Collaboration attempts one, two, three, four, and five
Gaëlle Jaunay-Desroches and Georgia Kokot met each other in their 20s at Art school in Paris. They moved together to New York to finish their studies and have since been friends and critics of each other's work. Georgia lives in Belgium but has been in quarantine at her mother's home in Texas, while Gaelle has been stuck in her Los Angeles house.
[8:53 AM, 5/31/2020] Gigi: Maybe you can ask him to say that he received the JPEGs on Sunday at XX a.m.
[8:54 AM, 5/31/2020] Gigi: On the website I mean
[12:28 PM 5/31/2020] Elvis: Project received
[5:18 PM 5/31/2020] Elvis: Project uploaded to AFTQ
ELVIS MAYNARD
Voices
New York City. May 30th, 2020.
On the 69th day, I broke my quarantine to head to the protests in Union Square with a camera and a sign painted in thick black acrylics on white cardboard. I’ve always loved protest signs ; the urgency, the anger, the demands, and the pleas spelled out in a few words and designed to grab your attention and stick in your mind. I decided to remove myself from the series and to simply put my camera in service of that moment, those people, and to show their stories through the signs they held high.
Each image is shot in a way that conceals the faces of the protesters to avoid any repercussions. They are identified only by their voices, designs, and ideas.
