Installation Shot (detail) from No Instructions for Assembly, Activation VII | Kameela Janan Rasheed

From Kameela Janan Rasheed:

No Instructions for Assembly, Activation VII

2015

Dimensions Variable (Installed within a traditional gallery space). 15 found photographs, xerox photocopied texts, self-authored texts, inkjet prints, woodblock prints, monoprints, newspaper clippings, vintage magazines, vintage books, fabric [felt, faux leather, vinyl, mesh, linen], embroidery thread, stockings, glass, human hair, paper [vellum paper, Japanese rice paper, kraft paper, chalkboard paper, post-it notes) black grocery bags, birch wood panels, black frames)

This solo exhibition was presented by Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia, PA.

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This text-based installation maps my research exploring blackness, citizenship, belonging and temporality as it relates to master narratives around post-racial futures, historical continuity and teleological progress. Progress is traditionally presented as a linear movement. However, history rarely operates this immaculately and there are moments of temporal jam-ups – remission to past patterns and guest appearances of structural haunts. I explore ideas of progress, how pre-fabricated narrative arcs shape the way American histories of race relations are conceptualized and the ruptures – those moments where the narrative of immaculate and linear racial progress in America glitches or stutters a bit.

— Kameelah Janan Rasheed

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