21c Durham is thrilled to present its newest exhibition, Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation.
About the exhibition
Bedecked and bejeweled, the figures populating Dress Up, Speak Up occupy fluid space and time, evoking past and present, fact and fiction, memory and desire, to illuminate the complexity of contemporary identity. Whether clad in the stylized garb of Enlightenment-era Europe, the traditional coverings of ancient religious tradition, or the gender-bending bling of popular culture, these representations of self and other role-play in real time, reach back through history to address prevailing personal, social, and political challenges. From Ebony G Patterson’s families, dancers,gangstas, and deceased, to the philosophers, dandies, and faerie conjured by Yinka Shonibare M.B.E., to portraits derived from allegory, autobiography, and the art canon by Titus Kaphar, Berni Searle, Vivek Vilasini, Fahamu Pecou, and others, this pantheon of provocative and prophetic personages are costumed to enact and confront the legacy of embedded experience.
