One/Sixth 

Publisher: destijl
Year: 2016
Pages: 18
ISBN: 978-0997514506

de stijl | PODIUM FOR ART is proud to present One / Sixth, which features work by the six black alumni of the University of Texas at Austin’s Masters of Fine Arts program.

The fraction one-sixth can imply the measurement of time and space. This seemingly insignificant numeric also gestures toward a noteworthy, fractional state of diversity and inclusion. The exhibition One / Sixth offers a visual tenor that highlights shades, cadences, and durations of temporality writ large. Here, the schism between the myths of linear progress in society and education, and the challenges of cultural exclusion and its attendant circular sense of time has amounted to One / Sixth.

In unique ways, the respective works of these six artists explore time in various media and contexts. Janaye Brown’s “pro-filmic” videos capture and transform mundane phenomena into meditative moments that encourage mindfulness on the viewer’s part, reducing the velocity of modern life and its constant flow of images. Christina Coleman’s sculptures of synthetic hair, which heavily signify race, and Walter Kisner’s collages, which ponder the musical qualities of abstraction, both painstakingly adopt the time- and hand-intensive traditions of craft. Robert Pruitt’s portraits of family and friends evoke Afrofuturism, as they richly borrow material from popular science fiction, comic books, and black revolutionary cultures. Zoë Charlton’s fantastical drawings of racial subjects meld portraits into landscapes, illustrating a variety of alienations, mutations, and voyeurisms that precipitate intersectional identities. Steven Jones’ sculptures have evolved from drawings on maps and mosaic processes, which evoke a measure of time and meditation.