Malerei auf Holz, Bildgrund scheint durch und grobe Pinselstriche in den Farben Weiß und Hellblau mit verzerrter Graffiti-Schrift. Es sind Löcher im Werk zu sehen und am rechten Bildrand ist ein Hammer angebracht.

Pope.L

Bind or Righteousness

Year2021
MaterialCharcoal, acrylic, oil, pastel, wood putty, glitter glue and hammer on panel
Dimensions121.9 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm
Year of acquisition2022
Inventory numberUAB 1291
On viewGround floor
Copyright© Pope.L, Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

More about the artwork

Many of Pope.L.'s drawings and paintings deal with the absurdities and perversities of language and how it is linked to the categorization and naming of color and race. “Bind or Righteousness” (2021)—a painting on wood—displays in expressive paint the preposterous and farcical phrase “fuschia n*****.” The combination of a degrading term for Black people with the misspelled color fuchsia not only questions which color we see and which one we read; it also subverts the cultural construct of race. Yet the painting is also an assemblage, streaked with glitter, and featuring a hammer that looks to have been just banged onto the painting’s surface. Pope.L reminds us that race, like language, is always something constructed.