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In my role at the ICA I am responsible for the success of each performance from a technical and logistical standpoint. My colleagues and I work with each incoming performance, artist, and group to establish how to fit their show into our space (which includes looking at lighting, audio, special effects, and personnel) and how to do it on time, on budget, and in a safe way.

Elizabeth Streb, a self-described “action architect,” designs shows that are made to test the limits of safety, comfort, and physicality; through her decades as a choreographer, she has honed a technique that expands the athletic boundaries of dance and has trained her dancers to protect their bodies while executing what appear, at least, to be impossible feats. Still, a show like this makes someone like me lose sleep. How do you present something that looks incredibly dangerous without actually imperiling anyone?

I remember getting the plans for the Streb show in 2009. It’s a show that’s filled with large, potentially dangerous components: an enormous hamster wheel that people climb in, around, and on top of; swinging cinderblocks that dancers dive through; and a thick plexiglass wall that dancers literally splat into. How to fit these into our very new, very delicate, glass-walled space where you can’t attach to any surface was, to say the least, a challenge. It was a million questions for Elizabeth Streb, her design team, our facilities team, our engineers, and our lawyers. It was asking the silliest-sounding questions and then trying to explain the reasoning behind the question. It was pictures and diagrams and video links sent back and forth, and it was, at each junction, saying “….hmmm, ok, but what if we…”

In the end, we found ways to make all of the elements fit. We had to place the giant hamster wheel ever so carefully so that the dancers’ heads, when they stood on top of it, were up between the lighting pipes, and there was a height limit for dancers allowed on top. We had hundreds, if not a thousand, pounds of steel blocks weighting down the plexiglass wall, but we had to spread out the point load so as not to break the floor. We had ground-supported truss holding up the cinder blocks at just the right height so that the arc of the swinging cinderblocks was at the right pace, so that the dancers could execute their (very scary looking!) movement safely, as trained.

At the culmination of months of prep work and a week of installation, I sat watching the show, perched on the edge of my seat, white-knuckled, holding my breath, witnessing incredible athletes do impossible, and crazy, things. It was an amazing show that I was proud to be involved with, and happy to see go.

See Elizabeth Streb and her dancers at work in Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity, streaming through Feb 25. 

 

 

 

 

As I write this, I sit facing a small print by Louise Bourgeois that hangs in my home office. It is a blood-red flower with a bulbous bloom and four tendrils. Deceptively simple, it makes a strong statement – emotional, suggestive, graphic – and was a Christmas gift from Louise many, many years ago. As we make available to our audiences the documentary Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress, and the Tangerine, I can’t help but remember the years I spent with Louise as her assistant, which always brings a smile to my face. My work with her began when I was a graduate student in New York and saw an index card pinned to the school bulletin board: “help wanted moving books.” I needed a job, so I called and went to interview at her 20th Street home in Chelsea. I had the charge of organizing Louise’s collection of books on all aspects of women’s work and her late husband’s library of art books. I was immensely happy immersed in all those books on her top floor. Gradually, with the libraries in hand, I moved down to the first floor, working alongside Louise as her personal assistant.

I hope you enjoy the film and the time spent on screen with this extraordinary woman and artist. She was full of spit and spirit, complexity and creativity, humor and hubris, and loyalty and love. 

 

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Inspired by works from the ICA exhibition i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times, check out these conversation starters to help inspire dialogue in your family. Print, cut out, and use them whenever you need some inspiration.

Visiting the ICA? Open on your mobile device, search for these works, and take turns asking questions as you move through the exhibition. Plan your visit

 

A sculpture of a woman stands with outstretched arms. She is nude from head to waist. The surface of the sculpture is rendered in varied dark tones, with mostly dark greens and browns, and is chipped and freckled in many places. She has no face. Her head is a round open bowl without eyes, nose, mouth, or ears. She wears a large, voluminous skirt. The skirt is made of dried raffia, which is a type of palm tree. She stands at life-size.

What do you do to show your friends and family that you care about them?

 

Simone Leigh, Cupboard IX, 2019.

Stoneware, steel, and raffia, 78 × 60 × 80 inches (198.1 × 152.4 × 203.2 cm). Acquired through the generosity of Bridgitt and Bruce Evans and Fotene Demoulas and Tom Coté. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York and Los Angeles. © Simone Leigh 

 

A sculpture comprised of a black wooden chair with elongated, spider-like legs that towers in height and is decorated with black feathers, black and silver tinsel, and hair.

If you made a throne for yourself, what would you make it out of?

 

Wangechi Mutu, Blackthrone VIII, 2012.

Wooden chair, plastic, hair, and tinsel. 100 ⅞ x 26 ⅞ x 39 ⅞ inches (256.2 x 68.3 x 101.3 cm). Gift of Jerome and Ellen Stern. Courtesy of the artist © Wangechi Mutu

 

A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned young woman leaning over the railing of a hospital bed, holding the hand of a frail and pale elderly woman who lays in the bed and looks up at her.

Describe a moment you had with your grandparent(s) that you remember really clearly. 

Nan Goldin, Chrissy with her 100-year-old Grandmother, Provincetown, 1977.

Gelatin silver print, 8 ½ × 11 inches (21.6 × 27.9 cm). Gift of Lillian and Hyman Goldin. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery. © Nan Goldin

 

A black-and-white photograph of a person from the waist up wearing a cap and plaid button-up shirt

The artist asked the sitters to pick their clothing, the setting, and their posture. What would you choose if someone was making your portrait?

Zanele Muholi, Hlomela Msesele, Makhaza, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, 2011, from the series Faces and Phases (2006–ongoing).

Gelatin silver print, 34 × 24 inches (86.4 × 61 cm). Acquired through the generosity of the General Acquisition Fund and the Acquisitions Circle. Courtesy of the artist; Yancey Richardson, New York; and Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg. © Zanele Muholi

 

A black-and-white photograph shows the artist, a Black woman, looking directly at the viewer as she stands behind her mother, who is shown in profile and whose head obscures half of the artist's face. Both are wearing hair caps and a curtain is seen in the background.

Who is the family member you admire the most and why? If you were to take a photo with that family member, how would you pose?

LaToya Ruby Frazier, Momme, 2008.

Gelatin silver print, 30 × 40 inches (76.2 × 101.6 cm). Gift of the artist and Michel Rein, Paris/Brussels. Courtesy the artist and Michael Rein, Paris/Brussels. © LaToya Ruby Frazier

 

A sculpture of two glazed white teacups on matching saucers. The cups are fused together to appear conjoined, as are the saucers.

Let’s pretend we’re drinking from this cup together. How would we move our bodies and hold the cup to share what’s inside? 

Mona Hatoum, T42, 1993-1998.

Fine stoneware in 2 parts, 2 3/16 x 9 ½ x 5 ½ inches (5.7 x 24.1 x 14 cm). Gift of Barbara Lee, The Barbara Lee Collection of Art by Women. Courtesy Alexander and Bonin and White Cube. Photo by Iain Dickens. © Mona Hatoum 

 

A drawing on paper depicts a Black man relaxing in a tiled bathtub with art objects including two masks and a rendering of two Black men in colorful suits hanging on adjacent walls behind the tub.

What do you like to do to relax? 

 

Toyin Ojih Odutola, Heir Apparent, 2018.

Pastel, charcoal, and pencil on paper, 63 ¼ x 42 inches (160.7 x 106.7 cm). Acquired through the generosity of the Acquisitions Circle. © Toyin Ojih Odutola

 

A color photograph shows two Black women posing together in cluttered living space. One raises her zebra-print dress to expose a prosthetic leg. The other is in a floral swimsuit. Both have their hair pulled back and smile toward the viewer.

The objects found in homes can give clues about the people who live there. What is an object in your home that might give a clue about who you are and what or who is important to you?

 

Deana Lawson, Barbara and Mother, 2017.

Pigmented inkjet print, 69 × 55 inches (175.3 × 139.7 cm). General Acquisition Fund. © Deana Lawson

 

This activity was developed by Amy Briggs Kemeza, Tour Programs Manager; Flolynda Jean, Education Assistant, Studio Programs; Jessie Miyu Magyar, School and Family Programs Manager; Brooke Scibelli, Family and Art Lab Programs Coordinator; and Kris Wilton, Director of Creative Content and Digital Engagement.

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Welcome to our process. We live intentionally and document creatively. Let’s pay attention, not just to how we eat, but to the process we must go through to get there—then write about it afterwards.

Bienvenido a nuestro proceso. Vivimos intencionalmente y documentamos con creatividad. Prestemos atención, no solo a cómo comemos, sino también al proceso que seguimos para lograrlo. Después escribamos sobre esto.

Materials/Materiales: 

  • Fruit you can peel / Frutas que se puedan pelar
  • Something to write on/with / Algo para escribir
  • Time set aside to be present with the activity / Tiempo aparte para estar presente en la actividad

Instructions:

1. Pick a fruit you would eat that you can also peel with your hands

Handwritten script that reads

2. Peel your fruit while paying close attention to how you do it.

Handwritten script that reads

3. Take five intentional bites.

Handwritten script that reads

Creative Documentation:

Now write. Use any thoughts or feelings you had during the experience of peeling and eating. What if the process was more than just about food? What is peeling a metaphor for in your life?

Bonus Challenge: Find another way to document the process

  • Take a photo
  • Make a drawing
  • Turn your peel into a superhero
  • Record yourself
     

Instrucciones:

1. Elige una fruta que te gustaría comer y que también puedas pelar con las manos.

Handwritten script in Spanish that reads

2. Pela la fruta prestando mucha atención a cómo lo haces.

Handwritten script in Spanish that reads

3. Come cinco bocados con intención.

Handwritten script in Spanish that reads

Documentación creativa:

Ahora escribe. Anota los pensamientos o las emociones que surgieron durante la experiencia de pelar y comer. ¿Acaso el proceso tuvo que ver con algo más que la comida? ¿En qué sentido pelar la fruta es una metáfora de tu vida?

Desafío adicional: Busca otra manera de documentar el proceso

  • Saca una fotografía
  • Haz un dibujo
  • Convierte la cáscara en un superhéroe
  • Graba un video o un mensaje de voz
     

A Puerto Rican and a Cambodian walk into a kitchen. The kitchen is your heart. The food is made with food. The food is sometimes poems. Either way you are fed. Adobo-FishSauce (Anthony Febo, Ricky Orng) began as an artist project fusing live cooking and spoken word poetry performances as a means to invite the audience into an enhanced storytelling experience. Now as they develop new projects, they continue to explore new recipes for collaboration.

Un puertorriqueño y un camboyano entran a una cocina. La cocina es tu corazón. Los alimentos se preparan con alimentos. A veces, los alimentos son poemas. Ambos te alimentan. Adobo-Fish-Sauce (Anthony Febo, Ricky Orng) comenzó como un proyecto artístico que fusiona la cocina en vivo con la palabra hablada de los recitales de poesía como un medio para invitar a la audiencia a una mejor experiencia narrativa. Ahora, a medida que ellos desarrollan proyectos nuevos, siguen explorando novedosas recetas en conjunto.

Look out for @adobofishsauce on IG and join us for #goneslinging — an intentional walk and talk. Share your artwork with us at #peelingpoems Find more about AFS at adobofishsauce.com.

Busca @adobofishsauce en IG y participa con nosotros en #goneslinging, una caminata y una charla con intención. Comparte tu obra de arte con nosotros en #peelingpoems. Obtén más información sobre AFS en adobofishsauce.com.

Major exhibition includes works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Kader Attia, Firelei Báez, Louise Bourgeois, Nan Goldin, Simone Leigh, Doris Salcedo, and many others

 

(Boston, MA—November 2, 2020) The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) presents i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times, a major collection presentation that features new acquisitions and iconic artworks from the ICA’s collection including works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Kader Attia, Firelei Báez, Louise Bourgeois, Nan Goldin, Simone Leigh, Doris Salcedo, and many others. The exhibition opens to members on Thursday, November 19 at 10 AM and at ICA Free Thursday Night on November 19 for the public. Advance timed tickets required at icaboston.org/tickets. On view through May 23, 2021, i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times is collaboratively organized by Jeffrey De Blois, Assistant Curator and Publications Manager; Ruth Erickson, Mannion Family Curator; Anni Pullagura, Curatorial Assistant; and Eva Respini, Barbara Lee Chief Curator.

“After the events of this year, we recognize now more than ever the power of the arts to uplift us as we reckon with all the uncertainties and complexity of our world,” said Jill Medvedow, the ICA’s Ellen Matilda Poss Director.

“i’m yours features new works to the ICA’s collection that have never been on view here, including a life-size sculpture by Simone Leigh, an installation of over 225 drawings by Firelei Báez, and portraits by photographer Zanele Muholi. Visitors will also be able to see iconic favorites from the collection like Tara Donovan’s cube of straight pins and Cornelia Parker’s hanging sculpture of charred pieces of wood,” shared the curators.

For this exhibition, the curators have taken an experimental approach, creating a series of discrete scenes within a dramatic architectural space featuring theatrical lighting and bold color. These scenes address topics that are relevant during these times of isolation, including ideas of home and history, social and material transformation, and frames of identity.

Exhibition highlights

The exhibition opens with three singular artworks: Simone Leigh’s stunning life-sized sculpture Cupboard IX; Louise Bourgeois’s theatrical Cell (Hands and Mirror) where, finely carved marble arms are reflected through mirrors installed in an evocative structure; and Green Heart by feminist painter Joan Semmel, whose work has engaged with charged eroticism and frank, corporeal self-portraiture. The works gathered feature the human figure either in its totality or in part, and evoke touch in poetic ways—whether in Leigh’s outstretched arms, the conjoined hands in Bourgeois’s sculpture, or the full-bodied embrace in Semmel’s painting.

Bridging myth and media, the works in the second scene share narratives of land, history, and the body. Firelei Báez’s monumental Man Without a Country (aka anthropophagist wading in the Artibonite River) includes 225 hand-drawn illustrations over repurposed historical texts written about Hispaniola, the Caribbean island of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Wangechi Mutu’s precarious Blackthrone VIII fuses ordinary materials together in a towering sculpture. Nalini Malani’s video sketch Penelope animates a classical myth. Caitlin Keogh’s painting Blank Melody, Old Wall gathers disembodied feminine motifs floating against a vibrantly designed background. Together, these four works offer artistic musings on the creative balance found in open-ended renewal.

Some of the ICA’s beloved artworks are presented as a means to meditate on the aftermath of loss and the possibility for creative production from what remains. Cornelia Parker’s Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson) strings the charred wooden pieces of a destroyed building to form a suspended sculpture. Doris Salcedo’s Atrabiliarios features the shoes of women who had “disappeared” (presumed abducted and killed) during the Colombian conflict (1967–present). Marlene Dumas’s large-scale paintings in The Messengers bring together three renderings of skeletons with a portrait of her own daughter. Nan Goldin’s photograph, Chrissy with her 100-year-old Grandmother, Provincetown, captures a momentary connection between two women at different points in their lives. Together, these works attest to the forces of loss, death, and destruction, as well as those of tenderness and care, that form our human condition. 

Notions of home are central to the works in next grouping, including rethinking familiar domestic objects. Family ties and relationships play a large part in artists’ reflections on home. Boston-area artist Rania Matar’s Orly and Ruth, a photograph of two Boston-area sisters taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, offers a glimpse into lives in isolation. Toyin Odutola’s Heir Apparent imagines the lives of two fictional Nigerian families joined by marriage, while Nan Goldin captures intimate moments with the families we choose to make. The relationship of home to gender identity also undergirds many of the works gathered here, such as Cindy Sherman’s staged Untitled Film Still #3, a send-up of conventional gender roles.

The next grouping features three artworks that reveal dense layers of meaning ingrained in familiar, everyday materials. Tara Donovan’s Untitled (Pins) is a cube made from thousands of metal dressmaker’s pins that recalls the “unitary forms” of so many highly finished minimalist sculptures. A structure of stacked white sugar cubes on a silver platter dissolves under poured motor oil in Kader Attia’s video Oil and Sugar #2. Sugar and oil are laden with complicated relationships to history, politics, and the environment, even as both are seemingly ubiquitous in everyday life. Equally as complex in its range of associations, the American flag at the center of Cady Noland’s sculptural assemblage Objectification Process is still sealed in plastic packaging. The inert flag positioned on an orthopedic walker suggests a powerful critique of American symbols of national unity and pageantry.

The next scene features nearly thirty portraits of front-facing subjects, many of whom lock eyes with the viewer. Challenging familiar forms of museum display and the genre of portraiture, this grouping stages an encounter in which the viewer is both seeing and being seen—and questions the power dynamics assumed in such relations. Some works, like Zanele Muholi’s suite of photographs and Collier Schorr’s candid portrait, expand ideas of visual agency and self-representation. Others interrogate conventions such as identification photography: Thomas Ruff’s dramatic shift in scale and Rineke Dijkstra’s double portrait both trouble the notion that portraits reveal vital aspects about identity. Brought into dialogue with one another, these portraits explore both furtive possibilities and persistent questions related to the power of seeing and being seen. 

Offering a glimpse into the long history of performance art and social critique, the final scene brings together two artists who took to public space to stage unsanctioned and layered portrayals of class, race, and gender. Between 1980 and 1983, Lorraine O’Grady performed as a fictional 1950s beauty queen named Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, or Miss Black Middle-Class. Arriving uninvited to gallery and museum openings throughout New York, O’Grady’s glamorous and unforgettable alter ego disrupted these private events to expose the racism and sexism rampant in the art field. Similar in its critique of class and privilege, Nari Ward’s 1996 performance involved the artist, dressed in a crisp suit, pushing his sculpture Savior down 125th Street in Harlem, New York. Recalling a traveling salesman, religious figure, and itinerant person, Ward’s performance puts forward his towering sculpture—carefully constructed from discarded objects—as a kind of talisman against a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. 

Artist list

Njideka Akunyili Crosby (b. 1983 in Enugu, Nigeria)
Kader Attia (b. 1970 in Dugny, France)
Firelei Báez (b. 1981 in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic)
Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911 in Paris; d. 2010 in New York)
Rineke Dijkstra (b. 1959 in Sittard, the Netherlands)
Tara Donovan (b. 1969 in Queens, NY)
Marlene Dumas (b. 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa)
Shepard Fairey (b. 1970 in Charleston, SC)
LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. 1982 in Braddock, PA)
Nan Goldin (b. 1953 in Washington, D.C.)
Mona Hatoum (b. 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon)
Chantal Joffe RA (b. 1969 in St. Albans, VT)
Caitlin Keogh (b. 1982 in Anchorage, AK)
Deana Lawson (b. 1979 in Rochester, NY)
Simone Leigh (b. 1967 in Chicago, IL)
Nalini Malani (b. 1946 in Karachi, Pakistan)
Rania Matar (b. 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon)
Paul Mpagi Sepuya (b. 1982 in San Bernardino, CA)
Zanele Muholi (b. 1972 in Umlazi, South Africa)
Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972 in Nairobi, Kenya)
Alice Neel (b. 1900 in Merion Square, PA; d. 1984 in New York)
Cady Noland (b. 1956 in Washington, D.C.)
Lorraine O’Grady (b. 1934 in Boston, MA) 
Toyin Ojih Odutola (b. 1985 in Ife, Nigeria)
Catherine Opie (b. 1961 in Sandusky, OH)
Cornelia Parker OBE, RA (b. 1956 in Chesire, England)
Thomas Ruff (b. 1958 in Zell am Harmersbach, West Germany)
Doris Salcedo (b. 1958 in Bogotá, Colombia)
Collier Schorr (b. 1963 in New York)
Joan Semmel (b. 1932 in New York)
Cindy Sherman (b. 1954 in Glen Ridge, NJ)
Diane Simpson (b. 1935 in Joliet, IL)
Henry Taylor (b. 1958 in Ventura, CA)
Gail Thacker (b. 1959 in Providence, RI)
Nari Ward (b. 1963 in St. Andrew, Jamaica) 

Exhibition-related fall programming

The Artist’s Voice: Zanele Muholi
Thu, Nov 19, 5:30 PM
Digital + Free
Influential South African artist and activist Zanele Muholi discusses their work, including the ongoing portraiture series Faces and Phases, select works from which are on view in i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Time, in conversation with Eva Respini, Barbara Lee Chief Curator.

The Artist’s Voice: Rania Matar
Thu, Dec 3, 6:30 PM
Digital + Free
Ruth Erickson, Mannion Family Curator, chats with Rania Matar about the artist’s Across Windows series of portraits taken in and around Boston during COVID-19. Hear more about Matar’s process for making art during an ongoing pandemic, an example of which is included in i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times.

Virtual Celebration: i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times
Wed, Dec 9, 7 PM
The event is a premiere benefit for ICA Members +
Celebrate the opening of i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times, a new major exhibition reveling in the power of experiencing art in person. Hear from all four curators in conversation about the exhibition and their experience curating in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest. Get premiere access by becoming an ICA member.

About the ICA

Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and expanding the museum’s role as educator, incubator, and convener. Its exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to the breadth and diversity of contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Support for i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times is provided by First Republic Bank.

First Republic Bank

Additional support is generously provided by Lori and Dennis Baldwin and The Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation; Ed Berman and Kate McDonough; Clark and Susana Bernard; Kate and Chuck Brizius; Paul and Katie Buttenwieser; Stephanie and John Connaughton; Karen and Brian Conway; Steve Corkin and Dan Maddalena; Jean-François and Nathalie Ducrest; Bridgitt and Bruce Evans; the Ewald Family Foundation; James and Audrey Foster; Hilary and Geoffrey Grove; Vivien and Alan Hassenfeld and the Hassenfeld Family Foundation; Jodi and Hal Hess; Marina Kalb and David Feinberg; Barbara Lee; Tristin and Martin Mannion; Aedie and John McEvoy; Ted Pappendick and Erica Gervais Pappendick; The Red Elm Tree Charitable Foundation; Charles and Fran Rodgers; Mark and Marie Schwartz; Kambiz and Nazgol Shahbazi; Kim Sinatra; Charlotte and Herbert S. Wagner III; and anonymous donors.

The Artist’s Voice: Zanele Muholi is made possible, in part, by the Bridgitt and Bruce Evans Public Program Fund.

The Artist’s Voice: Rania Matar is made possible, in part, by The Ronni Casty Lecture Fund and the Bridgitt and Bruce Evans Public Program Fund.

 

(Boston, MA—October 23, 2020) The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) presents the U.S. museum premiere of William Kentridge’s KABOOM! (2018), a recent acquisition and room-filling multimedia installation that addresses the history of African porters drafted into service for German, British, and French colonial powers during World War I. KABOOM! is a seventeen-minute, three-channel video set to a rousing orchestral score of both African and European musical traditions co-composed by Philip Miller and Thuthuka Sibisi. The exhibition opens to members on Wednesday, November 18 and at ICA Free Thursday Night on November 19 for the public. Advance timed tickets required at icaboston.org/tickets. On view through May 23, 2021, KABOOM! is organized by Jeffrey De Blois, Assistant Curator and Publications Manager, with Anni Pullagura, Curatorial Assistant.

“For over fifty years, William Kentridge has created gripping and profound works that address the human condition and the history of social injustice in South Africa, specifically the prolonged effects of colonialism and the apartheid system. Using a variety of mediums from drawing, animation, film, and performance, he transforms painful histories into powerful stories that evoke the trauma and endurance of colonial legacies. The themes of Kentridge’s significant work KABOOM! are particularly resonant during this time of global pain and reckoning,” said Jill Medvedow, the ICA’s Ellen Matilda Poss Director. “Presenting this work, newly acquired for the ICA Collection, deepens our commitment to share the art of William Kentridge with Boston audiences.”

Projected onto a scale model of the stage used in Kentridge’s theatrical production The Head & the Load (2018), which premiered at Tate London and later at New York’s Park Avenue Armory, KABOOM! employs collage as a narrative medium, “bringing different fragments together to find a provisional history,” as the artist explains. Embodying the theatrical intensity of The Head & the Load at gallery scale, silhouettes of porters march across cut-up fragments of colonial maps alongside the writings of Reverend John Chilembwe, philosopher Frantz Fanon, and artist Tristin Tzara, among others. Its title comes from the Ghanaian proverb, “the head and the load are the troubles of the neck,” which here recalls both the physical weight of goods, services, and weapons that porters—men, women, and children—carried for colonial soldiers, as well as their place in a global war that violently remade the continent’s borders towards the end of what would become known as the imperialist Scramble for Africa. A way of speaking back to the incomplete story of colonialism, KABOOM! envelops the gallery in a visual landscape that traverses memory and narrative, revealing our understanding of history to be a fragmented relationship to the past.

About the artist

William Kentridge (b. 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a multi-disciplinary artist best known for wide-ranging works that examine the paradoxes of settler colonialism and apartheid in South Africa. His multidisciplinary practice weaves together drawing, print, animation, and more, to recompose our understandings of the past, emphasizing, as he says, “what we’ve chosen not to remember.” One of the most significant artists of our time, Kentridge has exhibited widely internationally, including recent solo exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH; Reina Sofia, Madrid; Whitechapel Gallery, London; SF MoMA, San Francisco; and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, among many others. His work has been included in group exhibitions, and he has participated in several international exhibitions of contemporary art, including the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates; the Venice Biennale; Gwangju Biennial, Korea; Liverpool Biennial, UK; Documenta; and the Moscow Biennial, among others. Educated at the University Witwatersrand and the Johannesburg Art Foundation, Kentridge is the recipient of numerous awards, including honorary doctorates from University of Pretoria, South Africa, and Royal College of Art London. With this presentation of KABOOM!, Kentridge returns to the ICA in the first solo presentation since his 2014 exhibition Kentridge’s The Refusal of Time.

About the ICA

Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and expanding the museum’s role as educator, incubator, and convener. Its exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to the breadth and diversity of contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

KABOOM! was acquired through the generosity of Amy and David Abrams, James and Audrey Foster, Charlotte Wagner and Herbert S. Wagner III, Jeanne L. Wasserman Art Acquisition Fund, and Fotene and Tom Coté Art Acquisition Fund.