Johnnie Chatman
Johnnie Chatman: i forgot where we were...
2020 En Foco Fellowship Exhibition
April 1–May 29, 2021
Artist talk: Wednesday, May 19th, 5:00 PM
“The American West with its landscapes that invite identification but do not offer definition and with its absence of black communities, provides a particularly appropriate setting for a post-soul Interrogation of black identity. The walls of the gorge are as concrete as black people and white people, but what if one’s sense of self falls in the space between these concrete defining categories? Even if a vast space of possible identities exists between these two positions, how does one establish a definable and stable sense of self in the face of such vastness?” — Michael Johnson
Chatman’s series of self portraits, i forgot where we were... constructs an archive and body of imagery that explores ideas and notions around landscape and its relationship with black history. This chapter explores the American West, which has often been defined by binary and reductionist grids of thought and iconography. Like the black body, the West is a complex, unstable signifier given meaning by those who have lived within it, passed through it, conquered it, settled, farmed, militarized, urbanized, and dreamed it.
With this portion of the series, Chatman explores how vantage points across the West act as beacons for explorations of culture, history, and consumerism, as histories have been compressed into marketable cultural capital for international gazers. In pursuing this route, the project explores the ambiguity and multiplicity of blackness oscillating between a space of romance and critique, objective research, and personal narrative.
Johnnie Chatman is a Californian lens-based artist currently residing in New York. He holds an MFA in Photography, Video & Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Chatman’s work has been featured in exhibitions across the United States, including at Fraenkel Gallery, HereArts, SF Camerawork, Figge Art Museum, and Sioux Art Center. His work can be found in many private and public collections including at the Figge Art Museum and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His work has been featured in publications including Dear Dave, Nueva Luz, and Zoetrope: All-Story. He is also the founder and curator of Terms & Conditions, an experimental film screening series. In 2020, Chatman was awarded an En Foco Photography Fellowship.