FADER TV: Pitch Blackness With Hank Willis Thomas
- story THE FADER
In the 30 Americans exhibit and subsequent book, Hank Willis Thomas showed a bunch of old advertisements with black people and made punny titles. For his new exhibit, Pitch Blackness, at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City, Thomas created some advertisements of his own (but kept the punny titles). We cruised through the show and had Thomas break it down.
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posted on Mar 11, 2009 in ART + CULTURE CHANNEL, ART + CULTURE INTERVIEWS SHOW tags ART-INTERVIEWS, Hank Willis Thomas
NYC: Hank Willis Thomas at Strand
- story THE FADER
In Pitch Blackness, Hank Willis Thomas’s first monograph, Thomas appropriates images of dark-skinned flesh branded with Nike swooshes, a black fist transforming into rolling tires, and a silhouette of Michael Jordan aiming a gun instead of dunking a basketball. These images, particularly those of the “Br@nded” section are rife with an infallible critique on Black identity and its place in mass marketing. Containing a section dedicated to the loss of his brother, Pitch Blackness is a testament to Thomas’ mission that, “All my work is about what I learned and what I lost when the closest person in the world to me was killed over a chain.” Thomas will be at Strand Bookstore (828 Broadway
at 12th St) tonight at 7 to discuss and sign copies of the book. An exhibition featuring all new work, also titled Pitch Blackness, is opening at Jack Shainman Gallery on Thursday the 12th.
