And I Must Scream Artists Create Site-Specific Work
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a bov e l eft Steve Bandoma (DRC). Perruche Perruque from Costumes. 2018. Ink on paper, © Steve Bandoma, Courtesy MAGNIN-A Gallery, Paris. a bov e r i g ht In gallery view of the exhibition featuring in the foreground, Yinka Shonibare (British). The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (Africa). 2008. Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum. ©Yinka Shonibare. Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York.
frican art curator and organizer of the And I Must Scream exhibition Amanda Hellman has organized a visual conversation across the special exhibition gallery walls with ephemeral works of art created especially for the exhibition. Ganzeer’s site-specific mural, Macabre by Design, recalls the Egyptian revolution which was a part of the larger highly political Arab Spring of 2011 as the work takes a strong stance against powerful governmental figures and their corrupt regimes. The life-and-death imagery directly faces the works by Thameur Mejri, which similarly reflect events of the Arab Spring, and the works of Steve Bandoma, which portray clear elements of government corruption. The details in Macabre by Design, specifically the orange and yellow accents, connect to other works of art in the exhibition and pull visitors through the Egyptian temple-like doorway of the mural. The vibrant yellow plays with the yellow walls of Amie Esslinger’s site-specific installation that spans multiple galleries to replicate the complexity inherent in natural systems, while creating new mysterious organisms. The orange hints at the winding Buddhist Bug by Anida Yoeu Ali peeking down the hallway, recalling homelands and a chance to find solace from past calamities. Z
ab ove Amie Esslinger’s installation replicates the complexity in natural systems. b e lo w Ganzeer’s mural,
Macabre by Design, recalls the Egyptian revolution of 2011.
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