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Shawanda Corbett "Down the Road"
Sai
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Artists
Shawanda Corbett
Sai is pleased to present ‘Down the road’, a solo exhibition by Shawanda Corbett, her first exhibition in Japan and Asia. Corbett is a London-based, American artist with a uniquely interdisciplinary practice that encompasses ceramics, painting, photography, film, music and performance. Working with these diverse materials and media, it is through the relationship and interplay between these various forms that Corbett is able to explore ideas of memory, human experience and the interaction between the body and the spaces they occupy.
Corbett’s interdisciplinary practice finds its roots in Donna J. Haraway’s seminal text ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ (1985), which rejects the constructed boundaries between ‘human’ and ‘animal’, and ‘human’ and ‘machine’, emphasising that we are all essentially ‘cyborgs’ thanks to modern technology and society. Corbett uses her perspective as a woman of colour with different abilities to frame this theory in reality, questioning the idea of what a complete body is and how animal, man and machine co-exist side-by-side to form a hybrid body.
For Corbett, the term ‘cyborg’ allows her to channel these various identities and perspectives that provide the freedom to form a perspective that is entirely hybrid in nature. This sense of hybridity and freedom is evident in her approach to work, with the many components of her practice interweaving to form a multifaceted totality.
‘Cyborg theory definitely helped me to form my practice. When you think about cyborgs or robots, they are complete sections but they fit together. I do many different things and I like to move about because it is a concept…so it is about finding the best medium that fits that concept the best.’
Corbett’s perspective on the concept of the cyborg formed the basis of her first film work ‘Cyborg theory: the adequacy of tenderness to our antipathy’, that was shown at her solo exhibition ‘Let the sunshine in’ at London’s Tate Britain in 2022. The film is a musical score in eight acts with choreographed dance scenes that take inspiration from Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadisches Ballet. The film sees Corbett and other performers explore elements of the Black experience whilst wearing architectural forms that change the movements of the wearer’s body. The musical score was written by Corbett and choreographed by her brother Albert, a dancer and choreographer with whom she regularly collaborates for her performance works. This film provides an entry point into understanding Corbett’s multi-stranded practice, and the often difficult or complex themes that she addresses within her works. The film will be on display at the exhibition at SAI, acting as an introduction to the world of Shawanda Corbett.
Corbett’s works often draw from personal memories and experiences of growing up in the Southern state of Mississippi, with her ceramic works and paintings forming symbolic representations of the figures and people from her past. The forms of colour and lines that adorn these surfaces are informed by the personality of the people in her memories and the feelings they evoke within her, as well as the influence of the jazz music she listens to as she works.
For this exhibition, Corbett continues to draw inspiration from her past, with the exhibition title ‘Down the road’, making reference to the specific area and street where these figures resided. ‘Down the road’ is a common phrase that Corbett recalls she often heard voiced by the older African American members of her community, who would pronounce the words in their distinct Mississippi accent. The phrase itself is an ambiguous indication of direction that signifies neither up, down, left or right, but is instead a turn of phrase that holds significant memories and encapsulates the environment in which she grew up.
The titles of the individual works themselves also provide a window into the lives of these characters, with the ceramic vessels having titles such as; ‘You have someone new, that’s why I’m crying (From: “The Women of Skip Avenue”)’,or ‘I can walk myself home (From: “The Women of Skip Avenue”)’. Despite the differences in context, background and collective histories between artist and viewer, the phrases conjure evocative vignettes that allow the viewer to imagine the scene and the person portrayed, giving voice to the ceramic forms.
‘Skip Avenue’ is a place where you meet a lot of different characters. It’s not a neighbourhood, it's just a street and in that area you identify with the street you lived on. The works in the exhibition are representations of these characters and how I remember them, their personality and how being around them made me feel. It is purely feeling. It is not imagining what they look like or how they dressed. For this, it was more about the memory of them. The different vessels, for example, are not consistently the same but are similar and not related to the other. For that it speaks more to the circumstances. For this specific work it is very women heavy and a specific type of male. It’s like depicting different tropes of womanhood, male-hood, childhood and what it means to be all those things.’
Corbett’s affection for these figures is evident in the works and they exude a sense of warmth and humour that is universal. For Corbett, it is this sense of universality and a desire to communicate that is the main motivation for her practice. Though highly personal to her own memories and experiences, by transforming these memories into a range of emotions, her works transcend various barriers to appeal to a common platform of feeling that encourages empathy and inclusivity.
[Related Event]
Artist Talk
Date: Saturday, April 1, 2023, 18:00
Speaker: Shawanda Corbett
*Please visit the official website for more information.
Corbett’s interdisciplinary practice finds its roots in Donna J. Haraway’s seminal text ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ (1985), which rejects the constructed boundaries between ‘human’ and ‘animal’, and ‘human’ and ‘machine’, emphasising that we are all essentially ‘cyborgs’ thanks to modern technology and society. Corbett uses her perspective as a woman of colour with different abilities to frame this theory in reality, questioning the idea of what a complete body is and how animal, man and machine co-exist side-by-side to form a hybrid body.
For Corbett, the term ‘cyborg’ allows her to channel these various identities and perspectives that provide the freedom to form a perspective that is entirely hybrid in nature. This sense of hybridity and freedom is evident in her approach to work, with the many components of her practice interweaving to form a multifaceted totality.
‘Cyborg theory definitely helped me to form my practice. When you think about cyborgs or robots, they are complete sections but they fit together. I do many different things and I like to move about because it is a concept…so it is about finding the best medium that fits that concept the best.’
Corbett’s perspective on the concept of the cyborg formed the basis of her first film work ‘Cyborg theory: the adequacy of tenderness to our antipathy’, that was shown at her solo exhibition ‘Let the sunshine in’ at London’s Tate Britain in 2022. The film is a musical score in eight acts with choreographed dance scenes that take inspiration from Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadisches Ballet. The film sees Corbett and other performers explore elements of the Black experience whilst wearing architectural forms that change the movements of the wearer’s body. The musical score was written by Corbett and choreographed by her brother Albert, a dancer and choreographer with whom she regularly collaborates for her performance works. This film provides an entry point into understanding Corbett’s multi-stranded practice, and the often difficult or complex themes that she addresses within her works. The film will be on display at the exhibition at SAI, acting as an introduction to the world of Shawanda Corbett.
Corbett’s works often draw from personal memories and experiences of growing up in the Southern state of Mississippi, with her ceramic works and paintings forming symbolic representations of the figures and people from her past. The forms of colour and lines that adorn these surfaces are informed by the personality of the people in her memories and the feelings they evoke within her, as well as the influence of the jazz music she listens to as she works.
For this exhibition, Corbett continues to draw inspiration from her past, with the exhibition title ‘Down the road’, making reference to the specific area and street where these figures resided. ‘Down the road’ is a common phrase that Corbett recalls she often heard voiced by the older African American members of her community, who would pronounce the words in their distinct Mississippi accent. The phrase itself is an ambiguous indication of direction that signifies neither up, down, left or right, but is instead a turn of phrase that holds significant memories and encapsulates the environment in which she grew up.
The titles of the individual works themselves also provide a window into the lives of these characters, with the ceramic vessels having titles such as; ‘You have someone new, that’s why I’m crying (From: “The Women of Skip Avenue”)’,or ‘I can walk myself home (From: “The Women of Skip Avenue”)’. Despite the differences in context, background and collective histories between artist and viewer, the phrases conjure evocative vignettes that allow the viewer to imagine the scene and the person portrayed, giving voice to the ceramic forms.
‘Skip Avenue’ is a place where you meet a lot of different characters. It’s not a neighbourhood, it's just a street and in that area you identify with the street you lived on. The works in the exhibition are representations of these characters and how I remember them, their personality and how being around them made me feel. It is purely feeling. It is not imagining what they look like or how they dressed. For this, it was more about the memory of them. The different vessels, for example, are not consistently the same but are similar and not related to the other. For that it speaks more to the circumstances. For this specific work it is very women heavy and a specific type of male. It’s like depicting different tropes of womanhood, male-hood, childhood and what it means to be all those things.’
Corbett’s affection for these figures is evident in the works and they exude a sense of warmth and humour that is universal. For Corbett, it is this sense of universality and a desire to communicate that is the main motivation for her practice. Though highly personal to her own memories and experiences, by transforming these memories into a range of emotions, her works transcend various barriers to appeal to a common platform of feeling that encourages empathy and inclusivity.
[Related Event]
Artist Talk
Date: Saturday, April 1, 2023, 18:00
Speaker: Shawanda Corbett
*Please visit the official website for more information.
Schedule | Apr 1 (Sat) 2023-Apr 23 (Sun) 2023 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||
| Website | https://www.saiart.jp/exhibition/exhibition21/index.html | ||
| Venue | Sai http://www.saiart.jp/ | ||
| Location | 3F Rayard Miyashita Park South, 6-20-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001 | ||
| Access | 2 minute walk from exit B1 at Shibuya Station on the Fukutoshin, Hanzomon, Tokyu Den-en-toshi or Tokyu Toyoko line, 4 minute walk from the Miyamasuzaka exit of JR Shibuya Station. | ||
| Phone | 03-6712-5706 | ||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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