Amir George & Anansi Knowbody: Futuristic Nike Duffel Bag
@ Mana Contemporary Chicago
2233 S. Throop Street, Chicago, IL
Opening Sunday, September 27th, from 3PM - 5PM
On view through Sunday, October 11th
Futuristic Nike Duffel Bag is a time capsule video installation of a holographic transmission disseminated from a future world that addresses current societal issues. On the night of the last full moon in August, while rummaging for art materials on the West Side streets of Chicago, a street light flared catching the attention of Anansi Knowbody and Amir George. As they approached to inspect the flickering light, sparks flew. On the ground previously lit by the light was a Nike duffel bag. The bag contained instructions on how to inform the people of the present to radically change current conditions.
Amir George and Anansi Knowbody are part of the Black Radical Imagination experimental film program, co-curated by George and Erin Christovale, that has screened at national and international venues, including the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas (2014), Cooper Union, New York (2014), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2014), Trinidad Tobago International Film Festival, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (2014), REDCAT, Los Angeles (2013), Mickalene Thomas’ Better Days installation, Basel, Switzerland (2013), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2013). Anansi Knowbody’s Quiescence Adumbrate film was included in the 2013 Program.
As George states in his introduction to the catalog:
“Influenced by Robin Kelley’s ‘Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination’ and the sight of the black image on screen…Black Radical Imagination has manifested as a conduit for short films made by artists of color. It is a cinematic platform for radical thought intended to evoke feeling from the weight of imagery.”
Copies of the Black Radical Imagination exhibition catalog, retailing at $25, will be available for purchase for the duration of the exhibition.
ARTIST BIOS
Amir George (b. 1987 Chicago, lives Chicago) is a motion picture artist and film programmer who creates work for the cinema, installation, and live performance. His motion picture work and curated programs have been screened in festivals and galleries nationally and internationally. In addition to founding Cinema Culture, a grassroots film programming organization, Amir is the co-curator of Black Radical Imagination a touring experimental short film program. Amir is currently manifesting his latest film Decadent Asylum.
Anansi Knowbody (B. 1980, Jacksonville, FL, lives Chicago) is a nomadic multidisciplinary artist known for socio-political, time-based media, installation, and performance art. He recently completed his MFA at the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. Recent projects include Punch Piece, an endurance performance that addressed outlets of rage, Beefhaus Gallery, Dallas, TX (2015); Cocaine Column/ Build and Destroy, which includes remnants of from a performance of the same name, is currently on view at the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas.
« previous event
next event »