by: Max Eternity
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is an oft-recited quote attributed to George Satayana — philosopher, poet, essayist and novelist. It’s a somewhat cliché statement that nevertheless clearly recognizes the importance of historical erudition. As it is self-evident that there are many things, especially war, colonization, chattel slavery, genocide and holocausts of all sorts, which should never be repeated.
“Storytelling is a way to make sense of the world” says Jasmine Moorhead. Though for as critical as it is, historical study tends not to be the most exciting subject matter in the world. And yet, who disputes its vital relevancy to society, the progression of civilization, and the recognition of shared values?
History must be presented as catalyzing food-for-thought if it is to be passed down through the ages, resonating generation after generation. And what better way to do this than with art and storytelling?
Curated by Jasmine Moorhead for her gallery in San Francisco’s East Bay, Ron Moultrie Saunders and Karen Seneferu have conjured a meritorious two-person exhibition, which offers up a responsive helping of sensory manna that tells both the historical Middle Passage story of Africans taken forcibly from their homeland and brought to America, while also telling the story of a personal and collective, contemporary evolutionary process that infuses the prescient technological advancement of humankind and the individual growth processes of Seneferu and Saunders.
Employing photography, sculpture and video within the 3 rooms of Krowswork Gallery — located in Downtown Oakland — anthropology and technology are wed in the show, bearing the titlePassage.
Moorhead, an art advocate and art historian who at one time lived in a small village in the West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire, says she’s a lover of birds. This alludes to the nomenclature of her gallery, Krowswork, whose name is a palindrome — a word which is spelled the same backwards and forth. The space was founded in 2009 by Moorhead, a Yale graduate and former employee to New York’s Dia Center for the Arts and Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), and she spoke about the mission of the gallery and the Passage exhibit in a series of recent conversations.
Max Eternity (ME): I understand both your parents are artists? What’s that been like and how does it influence your life — your career decisions?
Jasmine Moorhead (JM): (laughs) I grew up thinking about art, this is something I feel very familiar with and comfortable with. The creative process has always been part of who I am. It’s jut there. There wasn’t a separation between people who were creating and my life. I remember as a kid thinking, “who would be crazy enough to do this?” I was very aware that the parents of my friends went off to jobs and weren’t there. But, my parents were always around.
The apple doesn’t fall that far from the tree. And so, it’s something I feel I have something to say about, because I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. And of course, it’s something I value — it’s personal and emotional, on that level. It’s never been an intellectual exercise. ME: Krowswork is your first gallery. Tell me about the name?
JM: I’m a bird person, I really like birds. Like many people, I’m drawn to hawks and raptures. Thinking about more of who I am as a person, I was like: You know, I’m more like a crow. They are very protective and social. They’re smart, they’re everywhere. The name Krowswork is a palindrome, it reads the same backwards and forwards.
It alludes to Alfred Stieglitz’s first magazine, to treat photography as a fine art. His magazine was called Camerawork. So, that was purposeful as well. Plus, it’s work.
ME: In the mission statement of the gallery you say “My wish for Krowswork is that it provides an instinctual, intellectual, and poetic framework within which to examine the mediums of photography and video in a larger art/historical context.” How so, and why photography and video?
JM: Photography and video, I think, these are the mediums of our time. Everybody has a camera. We take it for granted that you can go to Facebook and look at images and Youtube to look at video. This is the past 8 years. We’re not looking at a very long time this phenomenon has happened. There is so much of it. It is so successful. I think it’s important to try to wade through that and pull things out, and ask this is interesting, and why?
People who work in those mediums have more opportunity, but also more responsibility.
For me, this is also a creative venture and therefore I’m interested in shaping something. It’s instinctual, so it’s coming out of that reaction to itself, but also speaking to other work; the continuum of the shows at the gallery responding to one another.
That’s the most important job of a curator, to have a great eye, to select great work, but to really be able to see the forest for the trees. To say, this is why this is important right now.