video

Rashaad Newsome's Shade Compositions

Kitchen Center for Video, Music, Dance, Performance, Film, and Literature (New York, N.Y.), host institution
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2333.1/rjdfn8b7
Title
Rashaad Newsome's Shade Compositions
Other title
Shade Compositions
Author/Creator
Kitchen Center for Video, Music, Dance, Performance, Film, and Literature (New York, N.Y.), host institution
Restrictions/Permissions
Copyright holder: Rashaad Newsome, Contact information: Franklin Furnace Archive, Incorporated, Pratt Institute, 200 Willoughby Avenue, ISC Building, Rooms 209-211, Brooklyn, NY 11205, U.S.A., +1-718-687-5800 (business), +1-718-687-5830 (fax), mail@franklinfurnace.org, http://www.franklinfurnace.org
Language
In English and Black Vernacular English.
Date
2009 February 12
Filming or performance location
Filmed February 12, 2009 at The Kitchen, New York, New York, USA.
Format
1 online resource (video file (20 min., 19 sec.)) : sound, color.
Credits
Rashaad Newsome, composer ; Diamond Stephens, Alonso Alston, Jewrel Gainey, make-up artists. Rashaad Newsome, Loreal Monroe, Turiya K. Bynoe, Ayanna Williams, Oni Monifa Renee Brown, Daryl Dorsey, Denise Pillott, Annabelle Paez, Linda Adler, Amanda Simms Hunt, Cherry, Tiffany Noelle Jenkins, Noro Ejaita, Kenya Robinson, LaShell West, Serina Sanusi, Chinazo Rena Anakwe, Nicole K., TaDonna Nagle, Simone Marie Laveau, Jelisha Gatling, Reggie Street, Lina Gatineau-Elder, performers.
Notes

Rashaad Newsome explores social-political issues surrounding black vernacular in Shade Compositions (2009). Working with a chorus of black women, Newsome records, edits, and loops their gestures live by using a hacked Nintendo Wii game controller. The different racial tones of blackness expressed in the sound score derive from cultural stereotypes associated with the black female body. Newsome and the chorus remix representations constructed by mainstream media and popular culture. Essentially, they throw back the "shade"--a term historically amongst queer Black and Latino men and straight Black women, which has recently seen a resurgence in "mainstream" culture--as a gesture to critique negative perceptions of black women. In the process of doing so, the performers create a sound and image that works to uplift and affirm black women's identities and to reclaim black vernacular.

Rashaad Newsome is a visual artist working in collage, video, sculpture, music, and performance. His art practice examines how images in media and popular culture convey distorted notions of power. Newsome has exhibited and performed in the following art venues: Brooklyn Museum, MoMA PS1, Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, and Museum Start Gallery Artothek. He participated in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum in 2010 and Greater New York at MoMA PS1 in 2011. Newsome has received awards and grants from Franklin Furnace, Harvestworks, L' Entreprise Culturelle, BCAT/BRIC Rotunda Gallery, and Location One. His artwork is part of the public collections at the Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and New Britain Museum of American Art. He received a B.A. in Art History from Tulane University and studied Film at Film Video Arts. Newsome is represented by De Buck Gallery in New York City.