Otabenga Jones and Associates [Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Jamal Cyrus, Kenya Evans and Robert A. Pruit] is a Houston based collective who cite black identity politics, sixties era symbols, black mythologies and late eighties hip-hop among their inspirations. They describe some of their work as images and texts juxtaposed and forced into dialogues, “to mess with witey” as they say on their mission’s statement. Below are excerpts of a recent powwow with Pruit, a mere quarter of the powerhouse quartet.
What place does art hold in the human narrative?
Art is the tool that we utilize to try to control those things that cannot be understood through math and science. In a way, it is an attempt at relating the intangible in 3D form, sort of like the human body.
In what box, among the different boxes, does Otabenga Jones fit into?
The boxes are becoming less and less relevant and people are seeking something that is more accessible. If you notice, a lot of artists are trying to transcend those boxes. It requires more than just a painting or installation in a room—artists want to connect in a different way.
Otabenga Jones and Associates modeled itself after a law firm. It mimics an institution that affects people—in a real world context. These days we examine the manipulation and control of these institutions and their role in our lives. It is a call for us to exist beyond making good art.
There is also an issue of power. Art is in a contest with power, especially contemporary art, our forte. It [Otabenga Jones’ art] is interested in moving into the world through graffiti, performance art etc. For example, I recently came across a local performance art group doing a pillow fight in front of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. It was public art; perhaps a reaction to the rigidity of our lives. Capitalism, race and class have created certain conditions so art is a means of reclaiming an identity that is beyond consumerism.
Otabenga Jones to me seems like a synthesis of contradictions; antiquated meets post-modern, Songhai Griot meets Chuck D of Public Enemy, fufu-corn meets cornbread etc. What is the tick that drives the engine?
We [Otabenga Jones] met in Prof. Harvey Johnson’s class at [TSU] Texas Southern University. As you know, Prof. Johnson’s work is steeped in African history and tradition. In 93, we were hip-hop heads. One day in one of his drawing classes, [fellow Otabenga member], Jabari passed me his headphones. It was Ice Cube!
Now, the fact that I attended an HBCU [Historically Black College and University] and came from a black southern Baptist background steeped in tradition already gave me a social and political foundation. Then being exposed to cultural nationalists, the Panthers, the Nation, black arts movements, black ideologies etc, I existed in a whirlwind as I attempted to process them.
But it is on these movements, thoughts and ideologies that Otabenga Jones’s art sits on. And what unites all of these people and ideas is the desire to seek identity out of a state of oppression, especially the Panthers.
The movements of the sixties have the most impact on our work—be it their strengths or weaknesses.
What is behind the name Otabenga Jones and Associates?
The name Otabenga we got from the African, Ota Benga who was brought over here and put on exhibition against his will. It is not a well-known story here but it is sort of like a metaphor for the African condition in this country.
Jones is for ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’.
We created this character that is the head of our organization. Sort of like James Brown who wasn’t a musician but was a bandleader. Otabenga Jones is not an artist but understands the potential and power in art. It is all fiction. We, the artists, are just the artistic aspect of the organization. There is the scientific aspect with goals to build institutions [fiction]. It’s all about what you believe.
Otabenga Jones and Associates do not have a consistent form. It is beyond installations and performance. What if the idea of Otabenga Jones and Associates existed in a state of white mythology? What if you incorporate black power ideologies to contend with the white idea? Otabenga Jones tries to perform that idea in the same space. It is difficult because they can’t really exist in the same space. Our role is how ‘we’ think about our state (black) in that space. [Stereotypically] white art is mostly about abstraction and black art in not concerned with the grand notions of the human condition. What is at stake is being able to comfortably and freely deal with that stuff. We are trying to move it into spaces, which will provide a shelter or other black artists under the artistic umbrella—a safe space for that. Ultimately, that is what is at stake.
In the process we create space linked to grand ideas not connected with the oppression of others.
Click here to check on Otabenga Jones and Associates’ Lessons from Below.
Interviewed by Kangsen Feka Wakai
I should be re-reading this article for a 2nd time & a year+ after; and i must say i have perceived newer lights? insights & profundities in the otabenga jones & associates project! Not only in the politics & poetics of their name housing a legal, historic and aesthetic tropology; but also in the transcendent vision it ushers fittingly into a polyvalent, transracial, and globalising world where monopolizing metanarratives are constantly shattered, repressed & interred truths ressurrected & alternatives & truths revived & multiplied!Really otabenga jones & associates is a project driven fron into a wider future!
Posted by: Wirndzerem G B. | September 06, 2009 at 02:17 PM
My brother, you've just articulated, in perhaps, the most cogent manner the gist and raison d'etre of this this exciting, and i dare say, revolutionary artistic outfit! Vraiment, frere, dat critical vacuum wey e dey pays na yours to fill oh!
Anyways, i think Otabenga Jones reflects and to a certain extent personify the the complex narrative, in its totality, that is the Afro Diasporan universe.
Posted by: KFW | September 07, 2009 at 11:14 AM