LAURENT CHEVALIER AND FREDDIE RANKIN II

A PEACEFUL VIGOR

curated by Alyssa Alexander

June 9th - July 8th, 2022

A Peaceful Vigor brings together the photographic work of Laurent Chevalier, and the mixed media paintings of Freddie L. Rankin II. Centered within both bodies of work, is a careful examination of relaxation, retreat, and how pleasure can be a driving force towards liberation.

The photographic series Between Two Shores by Laurent Chevalier captures moments of rest and respite on the coasts of Dakar, Senegal and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. With most of the subjects faces out of frame, and the locales often indistinguishable, each photo builds on the notion of an objective and communal engagement with rest and amusement. Not rest as a radical act or political statement - nor in opposition to any myriad outside forces - simply rest as a practice. Much like buying groceries, a check-up at your doctor, or getting your hair done, rest can be - and perhaps should be - mundane and ordinary. The subjects of Chevalier’s photos did not set out with any agenda in mind other than a good time. Contextually, the photographs do address an unavoidable tension that exists between the shores of Africa and North America. A history of capture, enslavement, displacement and subjugation across the Atlantic Ocean, juxtaposed with a much later history of African-Americans retreating to the storied Oak Bluffs on summer vacation.

“As I spent my time there (Dakar), I found myself further considering the duality of experience that is present being African American. African & American. Both of those, yet never solely either. Further complicating this line of thought is the consideration of place and home. Home can be where you come from, but home can also be the place you create once you leave. It is a place of refuge, but also a place where brokenness begins.”

Confounded as this relationship is with the places we seek refuge along the coast, this time spent investing in rest and the pleasure of being with the outdoors is one both Chavalier and Freddie L. Rankin II continuously explore. On the concept of pleasure, Rankin has amassed a series of paintings entitled Meditations on Pleasure that hinge on a subjective reading of what pleasure is, and how we give and receive it. His paintings prompt a deeper investigation of what pleasure can mean to Black people on a broader scale, while utilizing visual and technical cues that tether his work to Chevalier’s photos.

The incorporation of sand as a medium is both practical and personal - providing texture within the pigment, but also referencing his engagement with the coast as a source of pleasure. The use of Black, almost exclusively, speaking to both the multiplicity of the Black experience and the expansiveness of Black as a hue across art history. More importantly perhaps, is Rankin’s approach to addressing a flattened concept of what pleasure can look like within his community. Given the opportunity to meditate on what and how we engage with pleasure - across sensorial boundaries - we can be liberated from the ways it has been withheld and the confining notions we often perpetuate.

Text By Alyssa Alexander