The Caribbean iconic thought leader Professor Rex Nettleford commented that some of us must leave the field and make the way to the Great House, to be able to find out what is happening in the Great House, and how it can be used to advance the people, the people who have been kept in the field for so long. He also warned against reaching the great house, we have to be careful not to mimic those who are there or to get caught up in the grandeur of being there.
The purpose must be remembered and action taken for the privilege of being in a position in the great house. It is a great cultural house, The Guggenheim Museum, that has imposing architecture and a reputation for some of the greatest cultural events in the United States. In 2019, the Guggenheim hired its first black permanent curator, Dr. Ashley James, who happens to be of Jamaican heritage.
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Both her parents migrated from Jamaica to the United States, and she grew up in a Jamaican home. Dr. James was given that privilege by the work she has done, her academic achievements, and her ability to navigate the world of high visibility culture. She came to Guggenheim after her successful stint at the Brooklyn Museum where she led the well-accepted presentation “Soul of a Nation – Art In the Age of Black Power”.
Dr. James also served as a Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Museum and Modern Art and held positions at the Studio Museum in Harlem. So she came to the position well prepared and she started at the Guggenheim around the time of the George Floyd situation, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the high visibility of the black movement, let’s say, the black revolution. And although she will tell you that her own positioning of her work was not necessarily a reaction to but certainly an awareness of the ongoing racial situation.
James’ first show for the Guggenheim, `Off the Record’ was a very bold one and you can see the courage she brought to the job with the effort to bring material that literally governs as she says all of our lives in some form, as we deal with records at various levels and in many, many ways and literally, a daily basis.
James featured the work of 13 artists which she remarks speaks back to a dominant history that is reflective of specific people in power, the victor’s specific institution, and all of the values that they carry. And the current Show – Going Dark – The contemporary figures at the edge of visibility. Here, Dr. James is bringing to consciousness or the consciousness of museumgoers, the systemic tension between surveillance over visible and Going Dark. Going Dark is a strategic move of the movement itself.
All this in Sculpture, Photography, Painting, and Video brings a wide experience to the show. The show in a way explores the tension and the friction between the desire for recognition, the frustration of distortion, and the need for self-preservation when necessary. It brings to the Guggenheim Museum some of the complexities of the day-to-day consideration, in a large part of their population, that is for the museum goers unrecognized or even unaware.
So, for the Guggenheim Museum goers, this is quite a departure where you have such a Focus an expansive approach to this question and to have this taking over the iconic Rotunda of the museum with over 100 pieces, 28 artists, most of which are black is a revolution in itself and the cultural world. A revolution led by Dr James, a relatively young curator, but with a vision, bold and keen, and bringing an understanding to these contemporary issues that sometimes get lost in the glitzy world of museums.
Dr. James has used this platform in a way that is engaging, impactful, and historic and has set the pathway to an understanding of the full complexity of life that culture needs to address, and that museums such as Guggenheim need to be engaged with. This is truly a moment to celebrate. As we watch and experience this exhibition, this show, with the story told in so many ways and on so many levels that it can no longer be hidden. It demands our active participation.
