LAMAR ROBILLARD

Dynamite In Da Ghetto

March 9th - April 3rd 2023

 Swivel Gallery is pleased to present Dynamite In Da Ghetto, a solo exhibition of 14 new works by the conceptual Brooklyn born and based artist Lamar Robillard. Throughout this body of work—which spans painting, sculpture, film, photography, and assemblage—Robillard deepens his investigation into historical and contemporary modes of resistance practiced by oppressed people, particularly Black people in the United States and throughout the African diaspora.

To be clear, the works in this show are energetically imbued with a precise intention: to spark a revolution. Dynamite In Da Ghetto takes its name from the title of chapter seven in political activist Kwame Ture (born Stokely Carmichael) and Charles V. Hamilton’s 1967 book, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. Throughout the book chapter, titled “Dynamite in the Ghetto,” Ture and Hamilton name “the ineptness of decision-makers, the anachronistic institutions, the inability to think boldly, and above all the unwillingness to innovate” as the “match that will continue to ignite the dynamite in the ghettos.”

This presentation also honors a radical Philadelphia-based organization called MOVE, which was founded in the early 1970s by John Africa with principles advocating for a shift to natural laws and ways of living. The organization, which is often associated with the Black Power movement, derived its name from the belief that living things must always continue to move, work, generate, and be active rather than stagnant; members greet each other with the phrase, “on the move!” The group’s refusal of modern systems of living led to a number of conflicts between them and their neighbors, as well as with law enforcement.

In Placement Painting VI: Still Movin’ for MOVE, On The MOVE, what's the MOVE? (2023), Robillard points to the organization in the artwork title, and in the archival imagery of group members placed on the surface of the canvas. The canvas is characterized by a weathered finish, an effect that the artist achieved by walking through the streets of his Brooklyn neighborhood and dragging the large swath of material behind him. This work is part of an ongoing series that Robillard describes as movement paintings, speaking to the repetitive stepping gesture he enacts to produce the footprint marks on the canvas. The artist employs a soft haint blue nodding to southern Black spiritual traditions; meanwhile the purple marks reference Sahasrara, or the “crown chakra,” which is associated with enlightenment. Placement Painting VI is also layered with old newspaper clippings detailing the 1985 standoff between MOVE and the police, which ended with the police bombing the group’s headquarters and killing 11 members.

Last Leg (of Cap) / Soul Food (2023) is a sculptural work which provides commentary on the links between white supremacy and capitalism. The base of the work is an old wooden high chair, a found object, with each leg of the chair modified by different materials that recur throughout Robillard’s work, including nails and small razor blades. The last leg is cut in half and rests atop a stack of dimes and a white knight chess piece, an object meant to symbolize the white supremacist structures that uphold capitalism. The wooden tray attached to the high chair is topped by a photograph that shows fried chicken on one side and sweet candied yams on the other. The image is held in place by snow-like mounds of salt and sugar on corresponding sides. This element of the sculpture addresses the complex and often harmful effects of what we call “soul food,” and comments on food inequity and lack of access.

Closing the show is Robillard’s debut short film Ghetto Birds In Us...Let The Sky Touch My Soul (2023), shown in tandem with an audio piece called Conversations on Flight (2023). The pair of works ruminate on what it might look like for Black folks to fly away from the system. Presented in the show as part of a larger installation, the cinematic work is viewed through the small window of a green construction fence which has been fabricated against the gallery wall. The installation reflects the countless construction sites that continue to pop up throughout New York City and points to a larger issue of gentrification.

Robillard works in a lineage of artists whose practice is intrinsically linked to their resistance to oppressive systems, as well as their commitment to the liberation of Black people. Dynamite In Da Ghetto is an incitation and an homage to the activists, artists, and thought leaders who too often go unrecognized despite having paved the way. It is a call to prioritize the true freedom and futurity of Black people. It is a call to ignite the dynamite.

Text by Daria Simone Harper