Casey Kaplan
Kevin Beasley’s Raw Materials
February 6, 2019
Does the past have a sound?
Celebrated for his material-oriented practice, Kevin Beasley juxtaposes sound, silence and sculpture to examine the legacy of cotton in the American South. Set to the beat of his improvised drumming, the film shows Beasley at work in his Queens studio finishing his multipart exhibition, “A view of a landscape,” at the Whitney Museum of American Art—his most ambitious work to date.
The installation is centered around the motor of a modern cotton gin—a machine originally invented in the late 1700s that streamlined the most labor-intensive part of cotton production, separating the fiber from the seed. Acquired on eBay, the motor was in operation from 1940–1973 in Maplesville, Alabama; in parallel to an era of intense social change that encompassed both the Great Migration and the passing of the Civil Rights Act. Housed in a glass soundproof chamber, the running motor is a visual, yet silent experience. Divorcing its sound was inspired by the motor’s former owner, who was unable to articulate its sound to Beasley upon purchasing, but as a feeling that will “shake your insides.”
Click here to continue reading