construct. 

Co-curated by artists keyon gaskin and sidony o’neal, construct. challengeD the museum's core identity. Construction of new institutional practices is preceded by de-construction. De-construction invites other modes of entry – getting inside, going off, investigating, and allowing other values to emerge. o'neal and gaskin recognizeD the generative potential of conflict that arises when we engage historically oppressive, exclusionary, and revisionist institutional environments. This exhibition thus locateD institutional critique in the persistence of opacity and black interiority. Commercial salon art and auntie aesthetics, alternative use of space, performance, and moments for dialogue become the substrate of an other space that holds detritus alongside desire – a critical site of generativity in a decaying world.

-sidony o’neal & keyon Gaskin

Rereading keyon and sidony’s initial curatorial statement now, it prophetically predetermined the exhibition’s end result: to be both challenging and pick apart how the foundational aspects and systems of the institution are intrinsically anti-black and possibly anti-progress. 

Unfortunately, not many folks got to see this show. The public engagement component of the exhibit, which was conceived as one small aspect of a multi-layered presentation, metastasized into its own unique examination of the public id.

In allowing visitors to write directly on the museum walls, we had anticipated the potential for some hate speech to appear. While we weren’t met with direct hate speech, I was not prepared for the level of disrespect that seeped in. Our space became the site of what I would later learn is known in the field of industrial experimental design as a “bathroom stall situation.”

Art on the walls representing black female interiority slowly faded into the background as a wildfire of scribbles, hashtags, political proclamations and drawings spread onto every wall and surface in the exhibit. After only three days we had to close the floor and regroup, because none of us knew how to proceed. keyon and sidony's conclusion was to not add or amend any signage, post a response or paint over the writing in the undesignated areas. We simply removed the writing tools we had originally provided and left the aftermath up for viewing. But at this point, people saw the opportunity to make their own mark and reached into their bags, continuing the wave with Sharpies and lipsticks. 

keyon and sidony’s messaging invited visitors to “feel free” to experience “mark making in an antiseptic environment.” What resulted was a public response to a rare freedom in spaces that are intrinsically restrictive. It was a stark manifestation of the friction between the public and the institution, of a power struggle between dominant paradigms and subversive elements. Prominent institutions like museums are always implicated in a larger power structure, and often function (whether or not well-meaning museum workers intend them to) in an oppressive way. And this oppression, at its core, has always been by design. 

We had requested little to no security presence on the floor, which contributed to the overall sense of chaos. Our trash pile sculpture area on the stage spread throughout the floor, and sidony’s thoughtfully designed, editioned broadsides were scattered everywhere, balled up or folded into paper planes. When markings were discovered on neighboring floors a few days after reopening, the museum respectfully requested to end the experiment for fear of works on loan being damaged. If we had allowed security interference from the start, the exhibit might have been better protected, but these bigger themes of permission, erasure, refusal and power may not have asserted themselves so strongly. 

The show was only open to the public for a total of six days, and there were so many special moments of curatorial creativity that never had the opportunity to be appreciated. We hung works in the corners and on the ceiling, and keyon and sidony paid tribute to their mothers by hanging the art at their combined median height (63 ½ inches). We hung the posters with copper tacks, aligned with their interest in using common industrial home metals. We created a giant hole in the wall the size and shape of the museum’s prized Monet painting, revealing instead the museum’s substrate of studs and concrete. There was a long table stocked with books, playing cards and dominos for people to enjoy, and music played throughout the space at all times. These details were the show, before the show became something else entirely.

At our final meeting, upon the conclusion to shut the exhibition down early, we examined the plans we had and the way they were expressed and developed within the space, and we resolved that all of it, collectively, was the work.