Undoing Time
Join us on Saturday, May 13th for Eric Waters: In Conversation, which will highlight the work and perspectives of this New Orleans-based artist whose photographic work Chained (2020) is on view in Undoing Time.
Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration reflects on art’s role in the history of incarceration and how art has perpetuated stereotypes of the incarcerated. Organized by Miki Garcia, Director, Arizona State University (ASU) Art Museum; Heather Sealy Lineberry, Curator Emeritus, ASU Art Museum; Matthew Villar Miranda, ASU-LACMA Fellow; and Julio César Morales, Executive Director and Co-Chief Curator, MoCA Tucson, Undoing Time uses history as a lens to understand this present-day phenomena. The curators analyzed more than one thousand historical works of art, from the Code of Hammurabi, to European Enlightenment prints of prison architecture, to twentieth-century photography of US chain gangs and internment camps. These pieces were then used to reflect on questions of art’s role in the history of incarceration. What shapes the belief that mass incarceration makes communities safe? Why do images of incarceration focus on bodies in chains rather than the resulting trauma? And, how can contemporary artists critique and challenge these entrenched historical narratives?
Undoing Time was first presented at the ASU Art Museum (September 10, 2021–February 12, 2022) and traveled to Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) (September 3–December 11, 2022). Twelve works commissioned by the ASU Art Museum by Carolina Aranibar-Fernández, Juan Brenner, Raven Chacon, Sandra de la Loza, Ashley Hunt, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Michael Rohd, Paul Rucker, Xaviera Simmons, Stephanie Syjuco, Vincent Valdez and Mario Ybarra Jr. critique, disrupt, and counter this flawed historicism, giving new images and a wider perspective on the impact of incarceration.
Undoing Time at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans expands the questions and the new narratives of the ASU Art Museum and BAMPFA exhibitions, folding in the works of five contemporary New Orleans based artists—kai lumumba barrow, Dawn DeDeaux, Lil Jodeci, Bianca Walker and Eric Waters—highlighting the history of black enslavement, Jim Crow, voter restrictions, and other disparities based on race, education and place. Louisiana has the third highest incarceration rate in the United States, while Orleans Parish has the highest rate in the nation. From 1889 until only 2019, Louisiana was one of only two states that allowed for convictions by non-unanimous jury verdicts, a system specifically enacted to rig the legal system against Black defendants. These works by New Orleans artists examine the continued history of enslavement in New Orleans and Louisiana through incarceration, disenfranchisement and systemic racism, allowing for new understandings of these histories and their continued impact.
Xaviera Simmons, “Skin Hunger,” 2021, photographs, videos, animations, paintings. On view in “Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration” at the ASU Art Museum. Photo by Craig Smith.
Cannupa Hanska Luger, “The ruin of Dominion (And other Gods we never named),” 2021, ceramic and fiber installation.
Stephanie Syjuco, “Shutter/Release,” 2021, 27 dye photographic sublimation prints on aluminum. On view in “Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration” at the ASU Art Museum. Photo by Craig Smith.
Vincent Valdez, “Nothin’ to see here, keep on movin!”, 2021, paintings, works on paper, bronze sculpture. On view in “Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration” at the ASU Art Museum. Photo by Craig Smith.
Mario Ybarra Jr., “Personal, Small, Medium, Large, Family,” 2021, custom stage facade with videos, photographic wallpaper, framed photographs, 3 aluminum pizza pans, hand-painted canvas signs, wood. On view in “Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration” at the ASU Art Museum. Photo by Craig Smith.
Sandra de la Loza, “Unsettling the Settled: Archival Glimpses of Abolitionist Futures,” 2021–ongoing, two-channel video, works on paper, light boxes. On view in “Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration” at the ASU Art Museum. Photo by Craig Smith.
Undoing Time: The Art & Histories of Incarceration at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, is made possible through the generous support of Art for Justice Fund, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors; The Andrew Mellon Foundation; and The Helis Foundation; and in partnership with the Arizona State University Art Museum. This exhibition is supported, in part, by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council. Funding has also been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The ASU Art Museum's presentation of “Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration” was made possible with additional support from the ASU Art Museum's International Residency Program and the Windgate Foundation Endowment, Olga Viso and Cameron Gainer, Cloth and Flame, the Flinn Foundation and La Bohemia.
Programming and Exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans are made possible through generous support from: The Andrew Mellon Foundation; Art for Justice Fund, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors; The Helis Foundation, the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Greater New Orleans Foundation Impact Fund; The Welch Foundation; The RosaMary Foundation; Greater New Orleans Foundation; the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council; Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation; National Performance Network; New England Foundation for the Arts; Josephine Whitney Nixon; Baton Rouge Area Foundation; Foley Family Charitable Fund; New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation; Coughlin Saunders Foundation, Inc.; The Freeman-Woollam Foundation; the Poeyfarre Fund; Nurhan Gokturk; George & Milly Denegre Fund; I. William & Jane L; Marrero Land Improvement Association; Virginia Wise & Kevin Wilkins Fund; CAC President’s Council members: Valerie Besthoff, Susan & Ralph Brennan, Dathel & Thomas Coleman, Robyn Dunn Schwarz & Andrew Schwarz, Aimée & Michael Siegel, Staci Rosenberg, Jane B. & Rodney Steiner, MK Wegmann & Lisa Mount, Dian & Tom Winingder, David Workman; and CAC Silver Circle members: Virginia Besthoff & Nancy Aronson, Jessica Bride & Nick Mayor, Leslie & Jonathan Fawer, John Foley, Tina Freeman & Philip Woollam, Marcy H. Monrose Curtis & Charles Curtis, Gina Monette, Greg Montgomery, Barbara & Biff Motley, Robin Rankin, Michael Schneider, Sharron Silvers, Jane & I. William Sizeler, and Gretchen & Scott R. Wheaton. We are also grateful for the generous in-kind support from The Arthur Roger Gallery; The Shop at the CAC, The Domain Companies; Corporate Realty, and Selina Catahoula New Orleans; as well as our community partners: Mr. Wolf Espresso & Books; Prospect New Orleans; and Arts District New Orleans.