#reimagingautoicon

Donald Rodney referenced stereotypes attributed to blackness through works such as Self Portrait: Black Men Public Enemy, 1990 light boxes and Double Think trophies with engraved text 1992. Through these works Rodney suggests how both the media and society reinforced these stereotypes through the criminalisation of black men hence the reference to “public enemy” and ironic rows of trophies symbolising the athletic prowess juxtaposed with engraved text such as “Black history has a horrible echo [sic], Sadly Black history gives poignant clues to Black Future, Black People are sly” 

Donald Rodney’s installation “Land of Milk & Honey” evokes the mythical city of gold symbolising his father’s believed he would find when travelling to Britain in the 1950′s. The souring of such hopes is represented in the artist’s large scale sculpture filled with strata of milk, honey and copper coins that have curdled and bled into one another with passing time. The installation has been permanently loaned to Birmingham Museum Trust, by the Donald Rodney estate.

Re-Imaging AUTOICON first workshop explaining the project to the group. A real mix in terms of age and experience in attendance. Workshop 2 is focusing on creating text to interact with the Re-Imaging website. We are looking at things like www.cleverbot.com to see how it works and responds in conversations. 

Today Antonio Roberts aka hellocatfood and I hosted the first of 8 workshops Wolverhampton Sickle Cell Care and Social Activity Centre. The focus of the workshops is to work with the members to develop a new online site, which will share the experiences of participants, who are either sicklers (people with sickle cell, Thalassaemia or other related diseases), carers, workers and family members. The lively session included discussion of the work of Donald Rodney, whose AUTOICON, was the inspiration for this project. Participants were generous in that they shared their experiences, thoughts and ambitions for the project. Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing images, audio, visual and text of the progress of the workshops, towards the eventual launch of the website and exhibition vividprojects in October. Watch this space for further updates

Robot Bodies from Keith Piper on Vimeo. Here Keith discussing the notion of the Robot as the “other”, as comparison to the black “other”. Keith recently presented at Re-Imaging AUTOICON salon vividprojects

http://www.eddiechambers.com/art-monthly/three-songs 

(Doublethink: The Atrocity Exhibition and other Empire Stories. The Black Art Gallery. London, 12 July - 2 August 1986. Exhibition brochure)

Donald Rodney (Autoicon)