EXHIBITION REVIEWS ART IN AMERICA 149
were long believed to be lost, but several years ago the Gordon
Parks Foundation discovered some 200 transparencies from
the project. A major 2014-15 exhibition at Atlanta’s High
Museum of Art displayed around 40 of the images—some
never before shown—and related presentations have recently
taken place at other institutions.
he Foundation approached the gallery about presenting
this show, a departure from the space’s more typical con-
temporary fare, in part because of RhonaHofman’s history
of spotlighting African-American artists. he prints, which
range from 10¾ by 15½ inches to approximately twice that
size, hail from recently produced limited editions. he selec-
tion includedsimple portraits—like that of a girl standing in
front of her home—as well as works ofering broadersocialrelections.Outside Looking In, Mobile, Alabama,shows a
group of African-American children peering through a fence
at a small whites-only carnival. In an untitled shot, a decrepit
drive-in movie theater sign bears the chilling words “for
sale / lots for colored” along with a phone number.
While most people have at least an intellectual under-
standingof the ugly inequities that endured in the post-
Reconstruction South, Parks’s images drive home the point
with an emotional jolt. A good example isDepartment Store,
Mobile, Alabama, which depicts a black mother and her daugh-
ter standing on the sidewalk in front of a store. he simple
presence of a sign overhead that says “colored entrance”
inevitably gives this shot a charge. But several details enhance
the overall efect, starting withthe contrast between these two
people dressed in their Sunday best and the obvious suggestion
that they are somehow second-class citizens. An arrow pointing
to the door accompanies the words on the sign, which are writ-
ten in red neon. Nothing subtle about that.To the left of these collages,Desert Statessilently
looped on two adjacent monitors angled toward each other.
he video’s footage is sourced from the 1987 and ’88 Miss
U.S.A. pageants. Contestants clad in neon one-pieces strike
pinup poses against a backdrop of the American Southwest.
Protracted zooms and pans frame the rapid, repetitive puls-
ing of the hyperfeminized bodies, invoking the explosive
rhythms of Dara Birnbaum’sTechnology/Transformation:
Wonder Woman(1978-79). Robinson focuses exclusively on
the contestants, editing out things like the judges’ com-
mentary and numerical scoring. Unmooring the contestants
from the mundane objectiication of the pageant, the video
positions them as unstable signiiers loating in the space of
a depopulated desert.
Mad Ladderswas screened in a black-box space. Hyp-
notic and hallucinatory, the ilm brings occult latencies
in contemporary media to the surface. Sister Donna, a
self-styled prophet on YouTube, narrates a gamelike odys-
sey through space oddities and golden triangles toward the
impending Rapture, while static and other efects associated
with VHS artifacts licker across the screen. As Donna’s
speech is distorted and set against a chiptune remix of a
Tori Amos song, footage of early American Music Award
broadcasts erupts into view, revealing stage designs steeped
in geometric abstractions evocative of both Kazimir Malev-
ich and 8-bit Nintendo consoles.
In the gaming industry, downloadable content packs are
periodically released to multiply the set of encounters a user can
have in a game world after its narrative possibilities have been
exhausted.Mad Laddersshares its title with a pack distributed
for the puzzle-platformer gameQuantum Conundrum. Oper-
ating like a downloadable content pack for popular media,
Robinson’s ilm suggests that we might yet expand and alter the
outcomes of our collective narratives.
—Mashinka Firunts
GORDON PARKS
Rhona Hoffman
Among the greatest accomplishments in Gordon Parks’s
multifaceted career are his pointed, empathetic photographs
of ordinary life in the Jim Crow South. he African-American
photographer—who was also a musician, writer and ilm-
maker—began this body of work in the 1940s, under the
auspices of the Farm Security Administration. At Rhona
Hofman, 17 of the images were recently exhibited, all from a
series titled “Segregation Story.” he show demonstrated just
how powerful his photography remains.
Parks, who died in 2006, created the “Segregation Story”
series for a now-famous 1956 photo essay inLifemagazine
titled “he Restraints: Open and Hidden.” He traveled to
Alabama to document the everyday lives of three related
African-American families: the horntons, Causeys and
Tanners. heLifelayout featured 26 color images, though
Parks had of course taken many more. hose photographs
Gordon Parks:
Outside Looking In,
Mobile, Alabama,
1956, archival
pigmentprint,29½
inches square; at
Rhona Hoffman.