Tim Schneider: Artnet
Language shapes our reality. It defines our perceptions of our allies, our enemies, and how much danger we think we’re in at any given moment. The Blue Lives Matter movement, begun by police officers in paranoid response to Black Lives Matter activism, crystallizes this dynamic in contemporary American life. Opening tonight, a new exhibition gives a fittingly surreal form to the rhetorically bizarre and potentially deadly force that Blue Lives Matter embodies.
“I’m Blue (If I Was █████ I Would Die)” is the first solo exhibition at Brooklyn’s Koenig & Clinton by American Artist, a young cross-disciplinary talent invested in issues of representation and concealed power. Artist legally changed their name in 2013 and opts for gender neutral pronouns, partly to expand conceptions of who deserves the loaded designation now doubling as their government moniker. However, Artist identifies as African American, adding personal resonance to the epidemic of police violence in the US so disproportionately affecting people of color. …Read More
Pictured: American Artist, Still from Blue Life Seminar, 2019. Written by American Artist with text by Christopher Dorner, performed by Christopher Grant, animated by Matthew Mann & Tommy Martinez, music by Greg Fox. Image courtesy of the artist.