Never Free to Rest

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plates created and intentionally broken by artist Rashaun Rucker

Rashaun Rucker’s exhibition Never Free to Rest, exhibited in our gallery during the fall 2021 semester, represents the last works in his remarkable ornithology series that explores the rock pigeon as metaphor for the systemic debasement, mistreatment, and conditioning of Black men in America. As source material for his drawings, Rucker utilizes images of men he knows and photographs of men incarcerated in the U.S. prison industrial complex. The photographs of those incarcerated are taken from various websites and newsletters and then collaged or altered to create the work. “The work is intended to be a record of their lives, a marker of the social conditioning and heavy challenges we face as Black men,” Rucker explained. “The exhibition is influenced by the inescapable I Hit More Than I Missed, Rashaun Rucker

NEVER FREE TO REST

Rashaun Rucker

A Perilous Perch, Rashaun Rucker

thoughts and words of friends lost: those who were incarcerated, those who believed there was no way out—that they had been permanently assigned to the bottom of America’s caste system even though their talents were immense and so often appropriated.”

In addition to four new drawings, the exhibition included inaugural sculptural works designed by the artist and fabricated as part of his Institute for the Humanities residency. The hand-cast plaster I Hit More Than I Miss replicates a half pigeon/half man drawing by Rucker. The resulting blaze orange discs call to mind the clay pigeons typically used for target practice. Rucker explains, “The neighborhood I was raised in felt like a trap because of redlining (a discriminatory practice of denying services to residents of certain areas based on their race or ethnicity), with only a few being able to traverse the obstacles set in place. Additionally, the common colors of orange and black on the bottom were a perpetual reminder of the mass incarceration of those who look like me, many of whom are unjustly imprisoned and completely marginalized once released. Finally, in the sport of trap shooting, a hit is often called a ‘kill’ and a miss is referred to as a ‘bird away.’ The machine that now launches the clay pigeon is still called the ‘trap.’”

The clay discs also offered an opportunity for collaboration with local ceramicist Yiu Keung Lee, who worked closely with Rucker to create the discs. As a performative element of the installation process, Rucker willfully broke three times as many discs as he displayed, the pieces accumulating on the floor like rubble.

Rucker’s extensive engagements with students–a dozen classes comprising over 150 students–allowed for deeply personal exchanges and connection at a time otherwise of disconnect and isolation. The gallery became a meeting place for meaningful conversations about race, identity, and futures.

It was Rucker’s intention, with the support of the institute, that the project be complete and ready to exhibit at other institutions, including Black communities and colleges. Since its debut, Never Free To Rest has been re-exhibited at the Art League in Houston,

The Ascent, Rashaun Rucker

Texas. Through the exhibition, Rucker was connected with gallerist Charlie James, director of Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, and will have his first solo exhibition there in September 2022.

“In the end, Never Free to Rest was as much about the breaking as the making—of broken systems, promises, and dreams,” explains Amanda Krugliak, curator at the Institute for the Humanities Gallery. “At a time when Black artists and their works are in high demand, the project led to hard questions: How can white institutions, curators, galleries, and collectors act responsibly beyond words and good intentions? How do we break the cycle of appropriation and commodification? How do we abolish the longheld practice of ventriloquism?”

Never Free to Rest was made possible by a grant from the Mellon Foundation as part of our multi-year High Stakes Art Initiative.