Gestures (v.1)

2018

2-Channel HD video installation, 15 minute loop

Gestures are always literal i.e. an action is happening, but readings of the ‘actor’ are be suggestive and subjectively understood. Consider the application of imagery and horror genre-like depictions used in real-life testimonies to describe the actions of a Black person banally moving through society, or evidenced racist reactions of non-Black people towards a Black victim.

Comprising of footage gathered by Anderson, from the 1930s up to the present day, Gestures reveals the on-going failure of dominant and ubiquitous Western representations to go beyond depictions of Black people as a mortal and societal threat to the non-Black populace - both on screen and in real life. Even in attempts to escape dangerous situations, Black people are still regarded as a threat by virtue of simply not wanting to die. The work began with and features an ever-expanding visual glossary of the black body in horror films, as surveyed by Anderson, and as the title suggests, will manifest in other versions in the future.

Gestures was commissioned by Mason Leaver-Yap for Lichtspiele at KW Institute for Contemporary Art. It was supported by the Arts Council England and the British Council’s Artist’ International Development Fund.