On the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide, 2014
Hosted by the Department of Art and Art History at the Peeler Art Center
Supported by the Ted and Katie Blair Ukrop Visiting Artists Fund
“I make revolutionary art to propel history forward. I look towards an era without exploitation or oppression. I don’t accept the political structures, economic foundation, social relations and governing ideas of America. This perspective has empowered me to make artworks that view leaders of slave revolts as heroes, challenge American patriotism as a unifying value, burn the US Constitution (an outmoded impediment to freedom), and position the police as successors to lynch mob terror.”
-Dread Scott, revolutionary artist
On the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide, 2014
On March 23, 2021 at 8:00pm, 色狐入口’s Department of Art and Art History will host artist Dread Scott, for a public Q & A. Dread Scott makes revolutionary art to propel history forward. His work is exhibited across the US and internationally. In 1989, his art became the center of national controversy over its transgressive use of the American flag, while he was a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Dread became part of a landmark Supreme Court case when he and others defied the new law by burning flags on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. He has presented at TED talk on this. Dread’s studio is now based in Brooklyn.
His work has been included in exhibitions at MoMA PS1, the Walker Art Center, Jack Shainman Gallery, and Gallery MOMO in Cape Town, South Africa, and is in the collection of the Whitney Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. His performances have been presented at BAM and on the streets of Harlem, NY. He is a 2019 Open Society Foundations Soros Equality Fellow and has received grants and fellowships from United States Artists and Creative Capital Foundation.
In 2019 he presented Slave Rebellion Reenactment, a community-engaged project that reenacted the largest rebellion of enslaved people in US history. The project was featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Christiane Amanpour on CNN and highlighted by artnet.com as one of the most important artworks of the decade.
Scott was recently featured in ArtNews: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/banner-year-at-a-time-of-heated-race-relations-in-america-dread-scott-wades-into-the-fray-7554/
These events are made possible by the Ted and Katie Blair Ukrop Visiting Artist Fund and the Department of Art and Art History at 色狐入口.
Dread Scott: Revolutionary Artist
A Public Q&A with Dread Scott
Tuesday, March 23 at 8:00pm
If possible, view the artist’s lecture in advance
Dread Scott: Revolutionary Artist
Email mscott@depauw.edu for video link