A Troublesome Inheritance
"Beautiful Diaspora/ You are Not the Lesser Part”
Curated by Asha Iman Veal
"A Troublesome Inheritance“ is inspired by an eponymous letter written by Graham Coop Davis (Professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California) to the editor of the New York Times in 2014, in support of David Dobbs’ review of Nicholas Wade’s “A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History” 2014. The letter was initially signed by 139 geneticists of diverse race, ethnicity, nationality etc. and provides a united front to the fight against the resurgence of scientific racism being pushed by persons on the right-wing of the political divide. It is indeed an egalitarian gesture that is necessary to counter pseudo truths aimed at entrenching fallacies of racial hierarchies.
My installation is a visual commentary on Nicholas Wade’s “A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History”. It adapts Wade’s title with a slight twist, making it “A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes Race and Human History, Art Review”. In line with my practice, this textual adaptation is translated into braille form and this braille form is further translated into a sculptural installation made with wooden frames, chrome balls on wax-print cloth, and LED lights activated by motion sensors. The adapted text in braille form results in 139 braille dots, hence 139 chrome balls in an expanded sense.
Another silent yet present feature in this installation-as-commentary is the subtle reference to the duplicated mythical Sankofa bird stamped in the wax print proposed by the philosopher kąrî’kạchä seid’ou in his curatorial statement for exhibition “Silence between the Lines: Anagrams of emancipated Futures” 2015. seid’ou proposes a new reading in the duplicated mythical bird as “attempts to grasp what it might have forgotten from futures that are to come”. This is a departure from the notion of the lone Sankofa as understood in historisist-contextualist terms as he describes it. It is in this spirit of emancipated futures that this installation finds its critical voice in the collective critique of commodified racial narratives espoused in the curatorial ethos of the exhibition "Beautiful Diaspora/ You are Not the Lesser Part”. The show is Curated by Asha Iman Veal at the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago (MoCP).
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| Kelvin Haizel A Troublesome Inheritance, Installation detail. Beautiful Diaspora/ You are Not the Lesser Part, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (MoCP Chi). 2022. Image courtesy MoCP |
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| Kelvin Haizel A Troublesome Inheritance, Installation view. Beautiful Diaspora/ You are Not the Lesser Part, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (MoCP Chi). 2022. Image courtesy MoCP |
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| Kelvin Haizel A Troublesome Inheritance, Installation view. Beautiful Diaspora/ You are Not the Lesser Part, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (MoCP Chi). 2022. Image courtesy MoCP |
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| Kelvin Haizel A Troublesome Inheritance, Installation detail. Beautiful Diaspora/ You are Not the Lesser Part, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (MoCP Chi). 2022. Image courtesy Casey Hayward |
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| Kelvin Haizel A Troublesome Inheritance, Installation detail. Beautiful Diaspora/ You are Not the Lesser Part, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (MoCP Chi). 2022. Image courtesy Casey Hayward |
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| Kelvin Haizel A Troublesome Inheritance, Installation detail. Beautiful Diaspora/ You are Not the Lesser Part, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (MoCP Chi). 2022. Image courtesy Casey Hayward |
