The Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University, is pleased to present Weapons and White Music, a solo exhibition by Chicago-based artist Jefferson Pinder, from February 2 through April 27, 2024. The opening reception will be held on Friday, February 2, 5-8 PM.
Marking his first solo exhibition in Detroit, Pinder taps into potent themes of his twenty-five- year career.
Weapons and White Music is an eclectic curation of objects and videos that places a finger onto the pulse of contemporary Americana and pop-culture. Sampling from the history of films and popular music, Pinder delves into the subconscious of race in the everyday. In the context of pop themes, he displays a selection of weapons that were inspired by revolution and surrender.
The exhibition will premiere the work Greatest Hits, 2024, and feature Revival, 2013, a music installation.
The Elaine L. Jacob Gallery will be open during the week on Thursdays, 12-5PM; Fridays, 12-7PM; and Saturdays, 12-5PM.
JEFFERSON PINDER
Jefferson Pinder (b. 1970, Washington, D.C.) has produced highly praised performance-based and multidisciplinary work for over a decade. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group shows including exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, The High Museum in Atlanta, the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. and Tate Modern in London, UK. In 2017, Pinder received a Guggenheim Fellowship; he also won a 2016 USA Joyce Fellowship Award in the field of performance, and in 2017 the Moving Image Acquisition Award. Most recently, he was named a 2021 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow.
Pinder received a BA in Theatre and an MFA in Mixed Media from the University of Maryland, and studied at the Asolo Theatre Conservatory in Sarasota, FL. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland from 2003-2011. He is currently Professor of Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
ABOUT PINDER’S WORK
Fire Next Time, 2022, mixed media
Interdisciplinary artist Jefferson Pinder gained national attention with the exhibition Frequency at The Studio Museum in Harlem in 2006. This show featured his Car Wash Meditations, a short video of a car rolling through a carwash to the music of Nas’ “Made You Look,” while explosive colors of soap manifest as action painting on the screen. The combination of sound and image is set against a profile of the artist seated in the car. In this and all his work, Pinder applies his knowledge of music, imagery, and performance to address complex issues of race, ethnicity, and class.
Troy Patterson of Slate Magazine praised Pinder’s work, saying its impact “lies in its ability to provoke meaningful dialogue.” The Washington Post compared his early work to that of Jacob Lawrence: “Like all Pinder’s best videos, it is a simple conceit, simply realized. But it speaks simply of the same complexities that Jacob Lawrence did.”
Pinder says of his work:
“Inspired by the symbiosis of music and the moving image, I portray the oppressed body both frenetically and through drudgery in order to convey relevant cultural experiences. I do so through disparate materials that each evoke multiple histories of oppression. I find ways in which reclaimed materials convey rugged histories, relating them to a Black American experience.”
Pinder’s 2019 series of performances explored the events of Red Summer of 1919. With a select group of performers, Pinder brought disparate historical locations and events back into focus through re-enactment. Videos including Float, Elaine, Fire and Movement, THIS IS NOT A DRILL and Sonic Boom were created at the location of each significant event. The performance documentation reflects on racism and trauma with the hope of inspiring dialogue about history and the potential for change.
Revival, 2013, five-channel HD video (images courtesy of Jefferson Pinder)