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| P·P·O·W is pleased to announce REVOLUTION, its second show of art works by Brett Cook-Dizney. Born in 1968 in San Diego, Cook-Dizney was influenced by aspects of graffiti and community art while studying zoology, education and fine art in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Along with his gallery work, he continues to work on permissional and non-permissional public work, including a collaborative project in South Central Los Angeles addressing divinity, the Gentrification Project with 10 installations throughout Harlem, a series on the streets of Brooklyn in response to the Hip Hop show at the Brooklyn Museum and a project addressing segregation at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge. Cook-Dizney’s community work typically depicts people living in the areas where the work is installed, bringing art to a wide audience that does not always frequent museums and galleries. Using ethnographic and pedagogical strategies, the work always involves the participation of the subject. "Its about giving people a voice, empowering marginalized communities," explains the artist. This exhibition contains two bodies of work that foreground prominent historical figures. The Models of Accountability series is the result of an ongoing study of persons who have been avatars for social change. The collection of multi-national, multi-disciplinary advocates for humanity such as Nelson Mandela, James Baldwin, Angela Davis, Thich Nhat Hahn, Henry David Thoreau, Caesar Chavez, among others, are represented in spray paint on mirror. An assortment of their written words and published text are attached to mirrored shelves at the base of each piece. These lusciously crafted works are combinations of colorful realism and lyrical organic abstraction that shift and refract as they mirror the viewer moving among them. By allowing the mirror to show through the painting, these advocates of human value are not portrayed as idols we see ourselves apart from, but models that we see ourselves in. The second series titled, Griots of the Revolution magnifies more than forty profound instructions for social change through continuous line "connect-the-dots" drawings. Using the West African title of "griot" or storyteller broadly, practitioners from various disciplines, geographies, and eras tell of ways to facilitate our individual and collective evolution. The large drawings on fadeless black paper in gold paint pen refer to the West African "Gold Coast" origins of the griot, and the diverse Diaspora that are the models of the Griot of the Revolution series. The African reference is furthered by synthesizing the call-and-response practice from African culture into delicately drawn quotations and a collaborative aspect that allows viewers to participate in the creation of the drawing. Each drawing focuses on profound words from marginalized voices to highlight insight often overshadowed by the commercial agendas of mainstream culture. Brett Cook-Dizney received a B.A. in the practice of art and a Minor in education from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. He has been showing his work at museums and galleries since 1991 concurrent to a practice manifested in public projects. These works have been executed in cities from California to Maine, internationally in Brazil, and Barbados. Some have been commissioned by museums or public agencies while others have been self-initiated interventions on abandoned spaces. Cook-Dizney has completed scores of these projects, often through an interactive and collaborative process. He has received a number of awards including residencies at Skowhegan School and the Studio Museum in Harlem, and he has been an active teacher and lecturer. |
James Baldwin, |
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