Kevin Jerome Everson
@ He said, She said
216 N Harvey Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302
Opening Monday, November 15th, from 6PM - 8PM
On view through Saturday, December 11th
History According to KJE Featuring Mechanics, a Visitor, Skin Pad Operators, and Horsemen reveals Kevin Jerome Everson’s ongoing work with real folks performing fictional scenarios based on their own lives and archival material such as films or photographs. Everson’s works demonstrates people’s relationship to their crafts and focuses on the conditions, tasks, gestures and materials in working-class communities of people of African descent. Fictional scenarios and archival material are presented as historical observation. The film The Equestrians is about the style and craft of bareback riding performed by African American cowboys. The Equestrians (shot with super-8 film) is rooted in historical practices, and constructed as if it were a home-movie. Margarett Watts CL#14094 and Dewey Drye CL#44024 are parts of a series of photographs entitled Empire. The series Empire are 1940’s identification photographs of African Americans who were employed at the old Empire Detroit Steel mill in Mansfield, Ohio, Everson’s hometown. The images of Watts and Drye (a skin pad operator) were selected for their mirroring Mona Lisa type smiles. The Untitled photographs are newly discovered images of Everson’s father and uncle who were mechanics before retirement. Instead of images of labor, these photographs project classical portraiture and leisure.
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