Jason Moran
Sept 20, 2019–Jan 5, 2020
Collaborations
4
Collaboration has been central to Moran’s experiments, and among the many artists with whom he has collaborated include The Bandwagon (Tarus Mateen and Nasheet Waits), Stan Douglas, Lizzie Fitch, Theaster Gates, Joan Jonas, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Ashland Mines (Total Freedom), Alicia Hall Moran, Adam Pendleton, Adrian Piper, Lorna Simpson, Ryan Trecartin, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems.
Kara Walker
National Archives Microfilm M999 Roll 34: Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands: Six Miles from Springfield on the Franklin Road, 2009
Kara Walker, still from National Archives Microfilm M999 Roll 34: Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands: Six Miles from Springfield on the Franklin Road, 2009. Video, color, sound; 13:21 min. Original score: Alicia Hall Moran and Jason Moran. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York. © Kara Walker
This work developed out of Kara Walker’s research into the U.S. Department of War’s Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Established in 1865 to aid the formerly enslaved in their transition to freedom, the Freedmen’s Bureau kept detailed records of the brutal violence inflicted on Black Americans during the Reconstruction era. Here, Walker depicts one such example, which was described in interviews with a family who was attacked and had their home burned by a mob of angry white men.
Part of a larger series titled The Bureau of Refugees, this work alludes to the tradition of puppetry and incorporates handmade sets. Glimpses of Walker’s hands and face appear as she manipulates the puppets. Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran’s original score animates the narrative sequences and intensifies as the plot thickens.