On Contemporary Artist Rashaad Newsome: Cohesion and Process

Christie Dooley

Earlier tonight, celebrated contemporary artist Rashaad Newsome presented a spectacular lecture on some of his most recent multi-media projects and collaborations. He shared a powerful body of work on a large presentation screen, including video, collage, sculpture, and performance pieces. His visions are "epic," fragmented, and mesmerizing. Newsome wields significant control of his status as an artist, and uses his influence in the art world to expose spheres of culture that are otherwise underrepresented. In all of his work, he brings together elements of "high art," sampling (like an MC) from the Western art historical canon, and elements of "low art," sampling from popular culture and vogue subculture. His art parallels European symbols of prestige (e.g., heraldry, coats of arms, and elaborate architecture) with popular equivalents (luxury cars, rolex watches, expensive jewelry, etc.). Additionally, Newsome draws parallels between jousting (courtly displays of power) and rap or voguing battles (efforts of distinction within black and queer communities). He is concerned with cohesion--his work is at once educational, tangible, interactive, empowering, and aesthetically engaging. Most of all, Newsome tries to create a complete visual and sometimes aural experience for his audience.
I am in absolute awe of his collaborative performance piece in Hong Kong, Five, which was first performed at the Whitney Biennial in 2010. Rashaad found five vogue dancers in New York, each proficient in one of the five elements of voguing--catwalk, duckwalk, hands, spin dips, and floor. He worked with these dancers individually, as well as five musicians. Each musician played a traditional Eastern instrument (or the saxophone). Additionally, opera singer Stefanos Koroneos provided vocals and vogue commentator Kevin Jz Prodigy charted the progress of the performance (both offstage and on). Throughout the performance, Rashaad Newsome used a Kinect camera to track the movements of colors worn by the voguers, and projected the results in the form of a colored line drawing on a large screen. By recording and abstracting these movements and lines on screen, Newsome emphasizes the process behind his art in a very "modernist" way. Furthermore, he sets up an interesting juxtaposition between the drama of classical music and the expressive language of vogue. He truly empowers the performer by allowing them to showcase their personal talent and identities within the context of "high art."
I am looking forward to learning more about Newsome at his additional lecture tomorrow morning!