|
Isaac Julien is Britain’s preeminent black filmmaker, an internationally recognized artist, writer, teacher, and scholar (he was nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize in 2001). His films include Franz Fannon: Black Skin, White Mask (1995); the Cannes Film Festival prizewinner, Young Soul Rebels (1991); and the critically acclaimed documentary on Langston Hughes, Looking for Langston (1989). Julien’s preoccupation is with the representation of race and masculinity in film. While his work is certainly considered “avant garde”, Julien employs conventional filmic strategies such as narrative and beauty to explore and subvert stereotypical portrayals of gay and black subjects. More poetic than didactic, his films are characterized by their dream-like imagery and sensuality.
This exhibition at CEPA Gallery presents one of Julien’s single screen museum installations, The Attendant. The intimate actions in this work occurs in the public space of a museum although, unlike so many recent works by artists that deconstruct the concept of such institutions, Julien sees the museum as a site for exploring issues of sexuality and race. In The Attendant, a black uniformed, male guard (the attendant) and a black female conservator are the protagonists. The attendant and the conservator are locked in silence, and no interaction takes place between them and a white visitor. This silence is shattered by the amorous sounds of the attendant and the visitor making love in the museum. Julien thus presents desire and pleasure as possible avenues for resistance to racial and class distinctions. Although she remains silent, the conservator is an ally, enabling the encounter between the lovers.
|
 |
|
