Banal Presents
September 13–December 22, 2019
Holy Apostles and the Mediator Episcopal Church, 260 South 51st Street, Philadelphia
Philadelphia 19104
USA
On September 13, 2019, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania (ICA) will launch Colored People Time: Banal Presents, the third and final chapter in the experimental three-part exhibition series Colored People Time that re-envisions the traditional exhibition format to build new narratives and public discourse around the everyday experiences of black Americans.
Broken into three distinct chapters which unfold over the course of 2019—Mundane Futures, Quotidian Pasts, and Banal Presents—the yearlong exhibition offers a profound exploration into how the history of chattel slavery and colonialism in America not only shaped the foundations of our country but exists in our present moment and impacts our future. The title of the exhibition draws from the black vernacular phrase “Colored People’s Time” which has functioned as a linguistic tool for people of color to control their own temporality even when placed within the construct of Western time. Conceived by Meg Onli, assistant curator at ICA, the format of Colored People Time roots itself within this malleable and fluid concept of time, enabling a new and responsive curatorial approach that will build on new ideas and discoveries from previous chapters, challenging the conventional exhibition structure.
Banal Presents creates a conversation between artists Carolyn Lazard, Cameron Rowland, and Sable Elyse Smith. Both they and the viewer occupy a current moment that is haunted by what Professor Saidiya Hartman has termed the “afterlife” of slavery. This “afterlife” names the enduring presence of slavery’s racialized violence that permeates every aspect of society. Banal Presents locates the present as the space where we bend the relationship between the past and the future. The present, in all of its fleetingness, is where we act.
Colored People Time: Banal Presents is organized by Meg Onli, ICA Assistant Curator. A fully illustrated catalog will be published in early 2020. Exhibition dates are Mundane Futures (February 1-March 31, 2019), Quotidian Pasts (April 26-August 11, 2019), and Banal Presents (September 13-December 22, 2019).
Major support for Colored People Time: Banal Presents has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Additional support has been provided by Arthur Cohen & Daryl Otte, Cheri & Steven Friedman, and Brett & Daniel Sundheim.
