Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art
Closes soon: With films, photos, videos, sculpture, documents, memorabilia and performances shown simultaneously in the galleries, "Radical Presence" is a busy effort to evoke significant events in work by black artists spanning the past 50 years. Many of the 36 talents are prominent theorists and performers including David Hammons, Coco Fusco, William Pope.L. and Lorraine O'Grady, whose performance as Mlle. Bourgeois Noir is documented in this photo of the artist exiting the New Museum. But others are overlooked or nearly forgotten figures whose contributions are re-examined here. With its abundance of historically significant material, "Presence " is an important reassessment of a pivotal era. Visitors can even pick up a microphone and insert their own "lyrics" to James Brown's song "Say it Loud, I'm (-----) and I'm Proud." (Ends Jan. 4, $9-$14, free for 17 and younger. Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls. 612-375-7600 or www.walkerart.org)
Mary Abbe
