This lecture will center and deconstruct the meaning of the mask in theory and form in relation to Tiona Nekkia McClodden’s works and their respective influences. She will approach this lecture in the form of a triptych which will explore the following: Unmasking, THE FULL SEVERITY OF COMPASSION, 2019; Veil, Se Te Subio El Santo, 2016 which will explore the mask as disclosure; Obscure, The Brad Johnson Tape, III, 2017 will explore the mask as a device of illegibility
Tiona Nekkia McClodden [she/her] is a visual artist, filmmaker, and curator whose work explores and critiques issues at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and social commentary. McClodden’s interdisciplinary approach traverses documentary film, experimental video, sculpture, and sound installations. Most recently, her work has explored the themes of re-memory and narrative biomythography. McClodden has exhibited and screened work at Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum, New York; Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin; MOCA LA; MCA Chicago and MoMA PS1, New York. Most recently she is the recipient of a Bucksbaum Award for her work in the Whitney Biennial (2019), a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts (2019), a Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism from Bard College (2018) and a Pew Fellowship (2016), among others. In 2017/18 she curated A Recollection. + Predicated. as a part of the multi-artist retrospective Julius Eastman: That Which is Fundamental at both the Slought Foundation in Philadelphia and The Kitchen in New York. She lives and works in North Philadelphia and is the Founder and Owner of Philadelphia based, Conceptual Fade, a micro-gallery and library space centering Black thought and artistic production. Her writing has been featured on the Triple Canopy platform, in Artforum, Cultured Magazine, ART 21 Magazine and many other publications.
The lecture will be held in English.