Click image to enlarge
Johnnie Chatman
Self Portrait, John Ford Point, 2021
Archival pigment print, 12 x 18 inches
Edition 1/5, signed, verso
Unframed
Courtesy of the artist
Estimated value: $1,600
My ongoing series of self-portraits, "i forgot where we were...," constructs an archive and body of imagery that explore ideas and notions around landscape and its relationship with Black history. The first chapter explores the American West, which has often been defined by binary and reductionist grids of thought and iconography. Like the Black body, the West is a complex, unstable signifier given meaning by those who have lived within it, passed through it, conquered it, settled, farmed, militarized, urbanized, and dreamed it.
This portion of the series explores how vantage points across the West act as beacons for explorations of culture, history, and consumerism, as histories have been compressed into marketable cultural capital for international gazers. In pursuing this route, the project explores the ambiguity and multiplicity of Blackness, oscillating between a space of romance and critique, objective research, and personal narrative.
About the Artist:
Johnnie Chatman
Johnnie Chatman is a Californian lens-based artist currently residing in New York. He holds an MFA in photography, video, and related media from the School of Visual Arts, New York. In fall 2021 he will be starting his PhD in art history, theory, and criticism at the University of California San Diego.
Chatman’s work has been featured in exhibitions across the United States, including at HERE Arts, New York; and Fraenkel Gallery and SF Camerawork, San Francisco. His work can be found in public collections at Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 2020, he was announced as a recipient of the En Foco Photography Fellowship. His work has been featured in publications including Dear Dave, Nueva Luz, and Zoetrope All-Story. He is also the founder and curator of Terms & Conditions, an experimental film screening series.
Website: jchatman.com
Instagram: @the_space_between
