Flip It & Reverse It: Spectacles of Blackness in Popular Media

“Thrilled to include an exhibition that I curated, Flip It & Reverse It: Spectacles of Blackness in Popular Media. The exhibition took place at VisArts in Rockville, Maryland. It featured a selection of video art from the mid 90s to the present day. The works sample footage and preexisting material from television, social media, and popular music to address how Blackness is constructed in mass media.  The exhibition borrows its title from the hook of Missy Elliot’s 2002 hit single, “Work It,” nodding to the exhibition’s use of humor and pop cultural phenomena to propose avenues for Black self-determination.  From MTV’s genre-forming reality TV show, The Real World, to the viral coverage of professional athletes endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement, Flip It & Reverse It contends with the fraught economy of pre and post internet spectatorship. The exhibition also explores the racial biases present in emerging technologies and cyberspace. The artists subvert digital mechanisms like the Google Search algorithm and social media comment sections to reckon with the eminent stakes of being seen. Here is a walkthrough video of the show! This project means the world to me :)”