Lorna Simpson: Videos / Photographies

Galerie Nathalie Obadia is pleased to organize Lorna Simpson's first solo exhibition in France.
Two videos and a set of photographs will be shown from December 11 to January 22, 2005.
Lorna Simpson was born in Brooklyn (NY) in 1960, into a family that was very involved in the fight against segregation and for whom culture was the indispensable engine of any social ascension. A graduate of the photography department of the High School of Visual Arts in New York and the University of San Diego in California, Lorna Simpson began her career as a photographer-reporter. The central themes of her work were the struggle for human rights, particularly the struggles against racism and the achievement of equal rights for blacks.
In the late 1980s, Simpson turned to visual and auditory works where images and words coexist to better interrogate issues of race and gender equality, key concerns in the political and cultural America of that period with the recognition of Affirmative Action.
In his works, the videos manage to install a climate of tension between the viewer and the filmed characters where candid atmospheres and engaged texts are superimposed.
Two recent videos will be shown at the gallery:
Corridor, 2003 is a double projection featuring two black women in two houses in Boston, a city that symbolizes the American WASP bourgeoisie. One of the houses is dated from the 17th century and is accompanied by music from the second half of the 19th century by the black composer Blind Tom and performed by John Davis, while the other is from the 1930s, built by Gropius after he fled Germany, and features jazz music by Albert Ayler.
We see the two women played by the same actress in daily scenes, each dressed in the clothes of the time. The viewer witnesses the cohabitation of the two worlds, the women are busy with daily tasks without any communication between them.
Cloudscape is a 16 mm black and white film in which a man whistles an American melody from the end of the 18th century in a misty and dark atmosphere. It is a parable of the condition of black slaves in America, which was considered the new Promised Land.
Since the 1990s, Lorna Simpson has exhibited in numerous museums and participated in several international art events.
Two recent solo exhibitions: Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin and Whitney Museum in New York.
Participations : Ducumenta XI and the Whitney Biennial, Printemps de Toulouse in 2002.
His works are in the collections of important museums such as the MOMA in New York, the Whiney Museum, The Denver Art Museum, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.