Aisha Tandiwe Bell
TRAP
She was the light in the darkness... radiate, 2022, acrylic paint, charcoal powder, ink, clay, glaze on wood, 11 x 14 in.
The bars retreat, 2022, clay, glaze acrylic paint metal leaf on wood, 11 x 14 in.
Copper penny wishes 2022, clay, glaze acrylic paint copper leaf on wood, 11 x 14 in.
Pepper meant the sweetness was in fact a meanness, 2022, clay, glaze acrylic paint copper leaf on wood, 11 x 14 in.
Say what now? Hmmm... 2022, acrylic, clay, glaze, metal leaf on wood, 11 x 14 in.
Pause. Neither silhouette or shadow, 2022, clay, glaze, acrylic paint, copper leaf on wood, 11 x 14 in.
War paint, Love paint, Change Paint, 2021, acrylic, metal leaf, ink, fired clay, glaze on wood, 24 x 36 in.
To fight and fight again, 2021, acrylic, metal leaf, ink, fired clay, glaze on wood, 24 x 36 in.
Growing glowing in the dark, I see you, 2021, acrylic, ink, charcoal, graphite, fired clay, glaze on wood, 24 x 36 in.
Grow my hands to sooth and fight, 2021, acrylic, metal leaf, ink, fired clay, glaze on wood, 24 x 36 in.
Dripping ice green and cold, 2022, graphite, ink, metal leaf and watercolor on watercolor paper and wood panel, 11 x 14 in.
We looking back at Ya, 2022, graphite, ink, metal leaf on watercolor paper and wood panel, 11 x 14 in.
All of my faces are watching you, 2022, graphite, ink, metal leaf and watercolor on watercolor paper and wood panel, 11 x 14 in.
Secret suppressed side eye multiplied, 2022, graphite, ink, metal leaf and watercolor on watercolor paper and wood panel, 11 x 14 in.
Everybody looking, 2022, graphite, ink, copper leaf on watercolor paper and wood panel, 11 x 14 in.
Mama said look folks in the eye and watch their actions, 2022, graphite, ink, metal leaf, watercolor on watercolor paper and wood, 11 x 14 in.
November 5 - December 4, 2022
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 5, 6-9 pm
Arcade Project Curatorial
56 Bogart Street #122
Brooklyn, NY 11206
Press Inquiries:
M Charlene Stevens
mcstevens@arcadeprojectzine.com
Arcade Project Curatorial is pleased to present TRAP, an exhibition of drawing, painting, installation, and video works by Aisha Tandiwe Bell.
Traps can take many forms and go by many names. The trap of complacency takes the form of apathy and silence. Consumerism, a remnant of colonialism, traps us into participating in, but not having ownership of, a system that continues to exploit the resources of the global South. Traps can take the form of self-hatred and self-erasure: the "sunken place" in Jordan Peele's Get Out and Kanye West's anti-Blackness, misogyny, and antisemitism. Positive and negative stereotypes can unwittingly ensnare people of color in the service of white supremacy.
Bell explores the "ratchet" as a space where the "wretched of the earth" can find their voice and power. The figures are not portraits but archetypal; they "make themselves" as the artist models the clay. The limits of two-dimensional space, a literal and metaphorical Flatland, signify how racial, gender, and class stereotypes can flatten identity into a form more suitable for consumption. The trap is "a metaphor for the state of the African in America – trapped, but watched as entertainment (music, sports, dance, the 24-hour news stream)."
Bell's work explores the possibilities of awareness and the potential to destroy the "beast from the inside." The artist explores pathways to freedom through hybridization, shape-shifting, and code-switching between multiple identities. The Lacanian unconscious, structured like a language, constantly encodes and decodes to survive. The split subject continually adapts its peripheral selves to shift power dynamics — to "get in where we fit in."
About the Artist
Aisha Tandiwe Bell is a first-generation Jamaican and ninth-generation traceable Black American. Her parents met at City College. Conceived in Tanzania & born in Manhattan, Bell was raised in the Bobo Shanti Rasta community, spending her early childhood on Bobo Hill in Bull Bay, Jamaica.
Inspired by the fragmentation of our multiple identities, Bell has committed her practice to create myth & ritual through sculpture, performance, video, sound, drawing & installation. Bell holds a B.F.A. and M.S. from Pratt and an M.F.A. from Hunter College. Bell received an NYFA Artist Fellowship in Multidisciplinary Work & has attended artist residencies/fellowships at Skowhegan, Rush Corridor Gallery, Abron's Art Center, LMCC's Swing Space, LMCC Workspace, Wassaic, the Laundromat Project, & BRIC. She has been a fellow with DVCAI on International Cultural Exchanges (Jamaica 2012, Suriname 2013 and 23, Antigua 2014, Belize 2019, Guadeloupe 2015,17 and 20), the Museo De Arte Moderno's Triennial 2014, the Jamaica Biennial 2014 and 17, the BRIC Biennial 2016, the Venice Biennial 2017, MoCADA, The Rosa Parks Museum, CCCADI, Columbia College, Space One Eleven, The Corcoran, Welancora Gallery, Arcade Project Curatorial, and Rush Arts are a few spaces where she has exhibited. She's a 2022 A.I.R. at Dieu Donne and Stoneleaf Summer 22. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
About Arcade Project Curatorial
Founded by M. Charlene Stevens in 2016, Arcade Project began as a digital publication focused on contemporary fine art and its cultural context. With its expansion into a nomadic curatorial platform in 2020 and a physical gallery space in 2022, Arcade Project Curatorial continues this mission to foster the careers of emerging and established creatives, launching experimental, thought-provoking exhibitions focusing on social justice and technology.