#kameelahjananrasheed

[brooklynmuseum]

Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s artwork in the museum’s lobby inspired this poem by Suny Cardenas-Gomez, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art intern: 

Is this the (Last) Time?

Remember my birthright

is uncertainty

I wonder

is change going to come for me?

Which me will that be?

I’m waiting

among swirling memories

Paralyzed

pushing on

I’m certain of loss

Is existing my right to be?

Is change ever going to come for me?

[youngglobal]

Phoebe Boswell, "The Mechanics of Illusion III", Lithograph, Edition of 20, 12 1/16 x 10 1/2 in featured in the #allthatiam print series (also featuring @derrickadamsny, @kameelahr and @sanfordbiggers) curated by #LarryOsseiMensah in collaboration with @artandcultureny. Available now! (Link in - http://artandculture.com/exhibitions/all-that-i-am/) #PhoebeBoswell #DerrickAdams #KameelahJananRasheed #SanfordBiggers (at New York, New York)

[derfoto]

#Repost @brooklynmuseum (@get_repost) ・・・ Join artist and archivist #KameelahJananRasheed this Saturday for an intimate look at the artists represented in the exhibition #WeWantedaRevolution. Part of our #ArtistsEye series of talks by contemporary artists that focus on our special exhibitions. Link in bio for tickets.⠀

[smackmellon]

Race and Revolution: Still Separate - Still Unequal's co-curator @youngglobal curated a series of limited edition prints for @artandcultureny launching soon! Go, Larry! 💚👍#Repost @artandcultureny ・・・ So excited to see our incredible new print by @sanfordbiggers, part of a series of prints curatored by Larry Ossei-Mensah @youngglobal including @derrickadamsny @kameelahr and #phoebeboswell launching soon #sandfordbiggers #derrickadams #kameelahjananrasheed

[collctr-blog]

The Black Man is The First, self created, and The Last. Everything that we see that we call Heaven and Earth was created by the Black Man…Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth submits to the God of black mankind – the sun, the moon, the stars and the powers that uphold them are from the original black nation. He is the first and the last. - Messenger Elijah Muhammad / #elijahmuhammad #nationofislam #noi #farrakhan #asiatic #asiaticblackman #originalman #fivepercent #fivepercentnation #fivepercentnationofislam #fivepercentnationofgodsandearths #islam #blackislam #blackmuslim #blackmuslimrock #iphone6 #iphone #kameelahjananrasheed #photography #photojournalism #foto #brooklyn #medina #blackman

[supportblackart]

This year’s Volta @Voltashow NY fair is going to be awesome! Artist @mickalenethomas and collector and consultant @racquelchevremont are co-organizing the fair’s Curated Section, “The Aesthetics of Matter,” which looks at eight artists broadly working in collage 🙌🏾: Kennedy Yanko @kennedyyanko, Christie Neptune @cnvisualart, David Shrobe @daveshrobe, Tomashi Jackson @tomashi_ashi, Devin Morris @devinnmorris, Troy Michie @troymichie, Kameelah Janan Rasheed @kameelahr, and Didier William @dueyart. The fair runs from March 7-11, 2018. Be sure to follow @deuxfemmesnoires @mickalenethomas @racquelchevremont and @voltashow for more! Image: photo by Guillermo Cano . . #supportblackart #voltashow #deuxfemmesnoires #mickalenethomas #racquelchevremont #theaestheticsofmatter #curatedsection #voltany2018 #collageart #contemporaryart #armoryartsweek #artnet #kennedyyanko #christieneptune #davidshrobe #tomashijackson #devinmorris #troymichie #kameelahjananrasheed #didierwilliam #representationmatters #visibilitymatters

[brooklynmuseum]

Sunday January 10 is your last chance to experience “Are You Reading Closely?” a new work by Kameelah Janan Rasheed and the first artwork to grace the Brooklyn Museum’s historic columned facade. Whether viewed at street level, or from atop the pavilion bridge, or in high-res images available on our website, this four-part artwork encourages close looking and reading in its conjunctions and kinships of words, phrases, and images, connected at times through schematic lines. 

Thwarting the typically clear-cut, promotional context of the space, which usually houses banners promoting exhibitions, Rasheed’s Xerox-based work vibrates with snippets of found text accumulating into poetry, glimpses of images from the artist’s collection of vernacular photographs of Black life, and a sense of unfinished, in-process thinking and making. In one detail, a Black woman elder shakes a Polaroid photograph, the image capturing her younger companion’s excitement, as well as the fugitive yet emergent moment in the picture-making process. 

In a time when hypervisibility and hyperproductivity create exhausting patterns of thought and action, Rasheed presents an unfinished yet intentional path forward for an internal process of reading with care: “reading, remembering, research, resistance, returning.”

Posted by Carmen Hermo Installation view, Kameelah Janan Rasheed: Are We Reading Closely? Brooklyn Museum, November 11, 2020–January 10, 2021. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado)

[marquitaharris]

#kameelahjananrasheed in #AConstellation curated by #AmandaHunt (at The Studio Museum in Harlem)

[brooklynmuseum]

Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s A QUESTION IS A⁠ SENTENCE DESIGNED TO ELICIT A RESPONSE.⁠ TODAY, WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE SLOPPY⁠ FUTURE HOLDS was commissioned by the Brooklyn⁠ Museum in 2018 for the vast space of the interior⁠ brick arcade, an under-utilized transitional area at⁠ the Museum’s entrance. The work returned to this space as part of her recent installation ARE WE READING CLOSELY and will remain on view through April. 

The four vinyl banners⁠ magnify subtle yet provocative questions regarding⁠ assumptions and anxieties around social progress,⁠ especially the fallacy that the future will inevitably⁠ be better than the past. According to the artist, the⁠ work is “inspired by attempts to locate the future⁠ of self, community, and nations in an increasingly⁠ uncertain world.⁠

Kameelah Janan Rasheed (born East Palo Alto, California, 1985) A QUESTION IS A SENTENCE DESIGNED TO⠀ELICIT A RESPONSE. TODAY, WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE SLOPPY FUTURE HOLDS, 2018. Textile. Courtesy of the artist. Installation photo: Jonathan Dorado

[brooklynmuseum]

Kameelah Janan Rasheed is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist, writer, and former public school teacher who describes herself as a “learner first.” Her exploratory approach embraces unfinished, in-process thinking over easy interpretations—or “readings”—prompting the questions: Are we reading closely? Are we reading with care? For the artist, close reading is an exercise to hone attention and engagement as well as a strategy for liberation, particularly in respect to Black experiences.

Read Closely 🔎

In To Escape the Algebra (2020) Rasheed turns a text on its side, making it difficult for the viewer to read. What does “close reading” mean in a text where information is obscured? What is the connection between math and writing? The image of a child in motion is cropped, with the focus on their action, but not their identity. They are made static in the circle, plotted on the black-and-white page. How does our reading become reductive? How might our attempts at meaning harm or benefit other people? And how can we move toward more expansive ways of reading? 

Reading and reflections by Stacey Kahn with Keonna Hendrick, Kelsey Goldman, and Tamar MacKay. Images: Kameelah Janan Rasheed (American, born 1985). To Escape the Algebra, 2020. Vinyl. © Kameelah Janan Rasheed. (Photo: Courtesy of the artist) ⇨ Installation views, Kameelah Janan Rasheed: Are We Reading Closely? Brooklyn Museum, November 11, 2020–January 10, 2021. (Photos: Jonathan Dorado)

[brooklynmuseum]

Kameelah Janan Rasheed is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist, writer, and former public school teacher who describes herself as a “learner first.” Her exploratory approach embraces unfinished, in-process thinking over easy interpretations—or “readings”—prompting the questions: Are we reading closely? Are we reading with care? For the artist, close reading is an exercise to hone attention and engagement as well as a strategy for liberation, particularly in respect to Black experiences.

Read Closely 🔎

In her November artist talk at the Brooklyn Museum, Kameelah Janan Rasheed explored what it means to read closely. Rasheed cited, among other influences, an idea put forth by literary theorist Umberto Eco: Texts are filled with gaps, and readers must do the work of filling them in, taking what Eco calls “inferential walks,” to derive meaning. Rasheed’s artwork “Are You Reading Closely?” visualizes these gaps. At the top of the banner, a constellation of words and phrases float on a black background, seemingly cut out or isolated from another source. A large hand further obscures the text, blocking numerous words from view. Viewers are asked to contend both with the words on the page and with the space between them: What do these fragmented words and phrases, disconnected from their original contexts, bring to mind? How might they be related? What other words, images, and ideas come to mind as you try to connect the dots? Rasheed’s work is a reminder that all texts have holes; reading closely requires us to mind the gaps, and pay attention to how we fill them in.

Reflection by Michael Reback Kameelah Janan Rasheed (American, born 1985). Are You Reading Closely? (detail), 2020. Vinyl. © Kameelah Janan Rasheed. (Photo: Courtesy of the artist) ⇨ Installation view [Detail], Kameelah Janan Rasheed: Are We Reading Closely? Brooklyn Museum, November 11, 2020–January 10, 2021. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado)

[brooklynmuseum]

Kameelah Janan Rasheed is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist, writer, and former public school teacher who describes herself as a “learner first.” Her exploratory approach embraces unfinished, in-process thinking over easy interpretations—or “readings”—prompting the questions: Are we reading closely? Are we reading with care? For the artist, close reading is an exercise to hone attention and engagement as well as a strategy for liberation, particularly in respect to Black experiences.

Read Closely 🔎

“My eyes follow a pre-prescribed path suggested by experiences reading English text: top to bottom, left to right, node to node, to make meaning. These eyes dance across A Nourishing Page, getting down through the concentric shapes, two-step meaning making across words, a syncopated sway from shape to shape, footnotes.” 

—BKM Educator ray ferreira reflects on her experience with Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s work, posing questions for us: How might we move differently across this work given our different experiences? How does the bouncing rhythm of clarity and redaction create space?

Kameelah Janan Rasheed (American, born 1985). A Nourishing Page, 2020. Vinyl. © Kameelah Janan Rasheed. (Photo: Courtesy of the artist) ⇨ Installation view [Detail], Kameelah Janan Rasheed: Are We Reading Closely? Brooklyn Museum, November 11, 2020–January 10, 2021. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado)

[brooklynmuseum]

Kameelah Janan Rasheed is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist, writer, and former public school teacher who describes herself as a “learner first.” Her exploratory approach embraces unfinished, in-process thinking over easy interpretations—or “readings”—prompting the questions: Are we reading closely? Are we reading with care? For the artist, close reading is an exercise to hone attention and engagement as well as a strategy for liberation, particularly in respect to Black experiences.

Read Closely 🔎 

For years, Rasheed has collected photographs documenting the life of Black people. Gesturing to the Reader (2020) includes xeroxed-based black and white photograph of three Black people in a room. Look carefully at the photograph. What do you notice about the image? How would you describe the interaction between the people in the photograph? What mood does the photograph convey?

Now consider the juxtaposition between the photo and a xeroxed index listing for the word “self-determination.” How do you define self-determination? In what ways does the word self-determination and it’s index listing inform your reading of the photograph? How does the photograph inform your reading of the word and index listing?

Reading and reflections by Keonna Hendrick Kameelah Janan Rasheed (American, born 1985). Gesturing to the Reader (detail), 2020. Vinyl. © Kameelah Janan Rasheed. (Photo: Courtesy of the artist)

[brooklynmuseum]

We're sure you're ready to send 2020 packing, but in the meantime, we hope you make the Brooklyn Museum part of your holiday celebrations. There is a lot of art to see, but be sure to visit during the final days of Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection, which closes January 3, and before our special exhibitions featuring contemporary artists Jeffrey Gibson and Kameelah Janan Rasheed close on January 10.⁠ ⁠

Installation views: Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection, Brooklyn Museum, January 24, 2020 - January 3, 2021 ⇨ Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks, Brooklyn Museum, February 14, 2020 - January 10, 2021 #JeffreyGibsonBKM ⇨ Kameelah Janan Rasheed: Are We Reading Closely? Brooklyn Museum, November 11, 2020–January 10, 2021. (Photos: Jonathan Dorado)

[brooklynmuseum]

Last week, the Brooklyn Museum debuted a new four-part work by artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed, titled Are You Reading Closely?, on its historic columns facing out to Eastern Parkway. Thwarting the clear-cut, promotional context—usually housing banners for exhibitions—the Xerox-based works vibrate with snippets of found text accumulating into poetry, glimpses of images from the artist’s collection of vernacular photographs of Black life, and a sense of unfinished, in-process making. The unexpected placement means viewers must slow down and look closer in order to decipher, or “read,” the avenues for intentional reflection and self-determination posed by the artist. In the coming weeks, Brooklyn Museum educators will pose questions to inspire an exploratory approach to this reading and reflection.

Join Rasheed for one or both of her two-part workshop on close reading, on November 19 and December 17. Register now.

Posted by Carmen Hermo Kameelah Janan Rasheed (American, born 1985). Gesturing to the Reader (detail), 2020. Vinyl. © Kameelah Janan Rasheed. (Photo: Courtesy of the artist) 

[brooklynmuseum]

Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s two site-specific installations at the Museum consider how our varied individual positions in the world—formed by the intersections of identities and relative political power—shape our imaginings of what is yet to come. In addition to her work in our lobby, I AM POROUS. TODAY, I LEAK PREPOSITIONS. SO, I WILL ASK AGAIN, DO YOU HAVE A SIEVE? can be found on the plaza steps through June 30.⠀

Exterior installation view, Something to Say. Brooklyn Museum, October 3, 2018 – June 30, 2019. (visible: Kameelah Janan Rasheed,  I AM POROUS. TODAY, I LEAK PREPOSITIONS. SO, I WILL ASK AGAIN, DO YOU HAVE A SIEVE? 2018.) Courtesy of the artist.  📷 Jonathan Dorado