• LaMont Hamilton

  • 2015

Grant Summary
Support for ongoing work.
Keywords
Artist Statement
Avant-garde has been overused. The term has become so much a part of the American lexicon that any semblance of advancement, of advancing, has been washed out. The term has become interchangeable with simple difference or dissension. The dilemma then is how does one articulate in another way the disavowal of the conventional, of a way of working that is not interested in the ready made, of work that attempts to unbound representational thinking? Centrifugal work seems useful of a term in this regard. A moving beyond that is not simply escape but a deployment of the imaginary. With Dapline! (the performative element of Five on the Black Hand Side) what's at play is not a literal translation of the dap, the root of the piece, what's at play is something more, something ephemeral. What's at play is a feeling, feelings. We're attempting to elicit just that space in between, where the dap moves (intergenerationally) and moves (the stirring sensation of love, brotherhood, solidarity).

  • Five on the Black Hand Side (1 of 120 handshakes) 2015, LaMont Hamilton, Chromogenic Print. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Still image from a performance of Dapline! 2015, LaMont Hamilton in collaboration with Andre Zachery, Performance. (Pictured: Brian "Dreamz" Henry, Andre Cole and Malcolm McMichael) Courtesy of the artist.

  • Still image from a performance of Dapline! 2015, LaMont Hamilton in collaboration with Andre Zachery, Performance. (Pictured: Brian "Dreamz" Henry, Andre Cole and Malcolm McMichael) Courtesy of the artist.

  • Performance of Evil Nigger- A tribute to Julius Eastman 2015, LaMont Hamilton in collaboration with Jeremy Toussaint Baptise, Performance. Photo by Shayla Vie Jenkins.