I am interested in the idea of redirecting the circulation of these images [of Black men] by reanimating the past and confronting the present… Each gaze is poised as an invitation but my critique is in the consumption of idealized body types, fetishization, and the performative aspects of masculinity. — Troy Montes-Michie*
Mark the opening of the Los Angeles exhibition TROY MONTES-MICHIE—ROCK OF EYE with a virtual conversation between Montes-Michie and theorist Tina M. Campt—who contributed an essay to the show’s catalog.**
See links below for details.
TROY MONTES-MICHIE and TINA CAMPT IN CONVERSATION
California African American Museum
Wednesday, February 16.
7 pm on the West Coast, 10 pm East Coast
TROY MONTES-MICHIE—ROCK OF EYE
Through September 4
California African American Museum
600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles
*Rasheeda Saka, “The Beholder,” Alta, December 20, 2021.
**Troy Montes-Michie: Rock of Eye, edited by Andrea Andersson and Lisa Pearson (Los Angeles: CAAM; New Orleans: Rivers Institute; Catskill, NY: Siglio Press, 2021).
See Tina M. Campt, “Black Visuality and the Practice of Refusal,” Women & Performance, February 25, 2019.
Also see: i-D: The Darker Issue, guest edited by Arthur Jafa, Winter 2021.
From top: Troy Montes-Michie artworks (2) © Troy Montes-Michie; Troy Montes-Michie: Rock of Eye exhibition catalog cover image © California African American Museum, the Rivers Institute, and Siglio Press; Troy Montes-Michie; Tina M. Campt; Tina M. Campt, A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See cover image © MIT Press.
