“I had faced de facto censorship issues throughout my life as part of the system of apartheid in the

“I had faced de facto censorship issues throughout my life as part of the system of apartheid in the United States. In the tape I was bristling at the women’s movement as well as at the artworld and some of the usual offensive encounters that were heaped on top of the racism of my profession.”So wrote Howardena Pindell in 1992 about Free, White and 21. This intensely personal and political film, whose title comes from a rebellious catchphrase often heard in Hollywood movies of the 1930s and ’40s, was a stark departure from the abstract works on paper for which she was primarily known.The film was first shown in Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States, curated by Ana Mendieta at A.I.R. Gallery in 1980. Confronting the largely white viewing audience typical of A.I.R.’s SoHo neighborhood, Free, White and 21 challenges unrecognized biases and unexamined privileges. Pindell’s personal account of the prejudice she experienced exposed white liberals’ complicity in systemic racism and sparked controversy within the gallery and beyond. Pindell’s motivation, however, was not to put viewers on the defensive but to record, on her own terms, her lived experience as a woman of color.Howardena Pindell (American, born 1930). Top: Installation view ofFree, White and 21, 1980. In Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibitionof Third World Women Artists of the United States, A.I.R. Gallery(September 2–20, 1980). 12 min.15 sec. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. Bottom: Still from Free, White and 21, 1980. Video, 12 min.15 sec. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. © Howardena Pindell -- source link

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