ARTISTS
Once Something Has Lived It Can Never Really Die
Once Something Has Lived It Can Never Really Die takes its title from a large-scale assemblage created by African American self-taught artist Ronald Lockett (1965鈥�1998) in 1996, two years before he died of AIDS-related pneumonia. On the rusted-tin surface of the artwork emerges the silhouette of a stag鈥攁 depiction of Lockett鈥檚 avatar, which he used repeatedly in his art. Like many other works in his oeuvre, the piece reflects the artist鈥檚 reckoning with his own mortality and endurance in the face of brutal entrapment.
In the exhibition, ten of Lockett鈥檚 artworks鈥攔epresenting different phases of his career鈥攁re paired with more than eighty small and portable works made by both known and unidentified artists from various eras and geographical regions, all of whom are situated outside the art mainstream. It includes eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Native American effigies, Brazilian wood ex-votos, sculptures by Sandra Sheehy (b. 1965), and drawings by Melvin Way (b. 1954). Each production relates to the most pervasive and essential themes in Lockett鈥檚 art: mortality, eschatology, and vulnerability. Produced for their protective qualities and invested with powers, the creations played a role in daily rituals. They allude to recurring human conditions鈥攆ear, loss, illness, and survival鈥攁nd mark transitions between, and connections with, the ongoing cycles of life.
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Once Something Has Lived It Can Never Really Die takes its title from a large-scale assemblage created by African American self-taught artist Ronald Lockett (1965鈥�1998) in 1996, two years before he died of AIDS-related pneumonia. On the rusted-tin surface of the artwork emerges the silhouette of a stag鈥攁 depiction of Lockett鈥檚 avatar, which he used repeatedly in his art. Like many other works in his oeuvre, the piece reflects the artist鈥檚 reckoning with his own mortality and endurance in the face of brutal entrapment.
In the exhibition, ten of Lockett鈥檚 artworks鈥攔epresenting different phases of his career鈥攁re paired with more than eighty small and portable works made by both known and unidentified artists from various eras and geographical regions, all of whom are situated outside the art mainstream. It includes eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Native American effigies, Brazilian wood ex-votos, sculptures by Sandra Sheehy (b. 1965), and drawings by Melvin Way (b. 1954). Each production relates to the most pervasive and essential themes in Lockett鈥檚 art: mortality, eschatology, and vulnerability. Produced for their protective qualities and invested with powers, the creations played a role in daily rituals. They allude to recurring human conditions鈥攆ear, loss, illness, and survival鈥攁nd mark transitions between, and connections with, the ongoing cycles of life.
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