{"id":2481,"date":"2018-03-14T16:36:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T16:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=2481"},"modified":"2018-03-14T16:36:38","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T16:36:38","slug":"paul-stephen-benjamin-exhibition-at-telfair-museums-jepson-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=2481","title":{"rendered":"Paul Stephen Benjamin Exhibition at Telfair Museums Jepson Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Stephen Benjamin: Reinterpreting the Sound of Blackness<\/h2>\n
JEPSON CENTER<\/span><\/div>\n
January 26, 2018 – May 6, 2018<\/span><\/div>\n
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\"\"Paul Stephen Benjamin (American, b. 1966)<\/strong> is a conceptual artist whose work is a meditation on the color black, specifically as an entry point into discussions of identity, race, and masculinity. Benjamin\u2019s artistic suggestion is that a cohesive message about identity is all but impossible but still worthy of exploration. Benjamin creates multilayered and large-scale sculptures and video installations, incorporating history, text, and popular culture. This solo presentation at Telfair Museums will be the artist\u2019s largest focused presentation of his video installations to date.<\/p>\n

Benjamin also investigates the concept of the \u201csound of black\u201d by editing videos to repeat phrases, video clips, or letters to create layered, haunting compositions heard in rhythmic rounds. The video monitors are usually in various states of technological decay, and shown stacked and with all external and necessary devices like electrical cords and DVD players. Benjamin\u2019s video installations include references to blackness \u2014 from the color of the discarded monitors that he stacks to make his sculptural towers to the faces of notable African Americans as varied as Shirley Chisholm, Condoleezza Rice, Eldridge Cleaver, Beyonc\u00e9, LeBron James, Billie Holliday, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, and Lil Wayne.<\/p>\n

This simple entry point of the \u201ccolor black\u201d or the \u201csound of black\u201d is used to explore the complexities, politics, poetics, and subjectivities of racial identity \u2013 whether stereotyped, projected, or self-identified. Benjamin is certainly a political artist, but he\u2019s most interested in stepping back and allowing his work to operate as a medium for interpretation and introspection.<\/p>\n

READ MORE HERE.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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