“Dancing in the streets” by Mark Bradford
2019 · color · USA · En · 5’
The fabric of the city of Los Angeles is central to the video installation ‘Dancing in the Street.’ The video features the iconic song penned by a trio of songwriters including Marvin Gaye, recorded by Martha and the Vandellas in 1964. Given the context of the civil rights movement and the riots at the time the hit song was released, ‘Dancing in the Street’ took on renewed significance as a call to action when many took to the streets protesting for social change. In Bradford’s video, Martha Reeves and her co-performers are rendered spectral… They flicker in and out of view as Bradford drives through the nocturnal city, projecting their image onto buildings that might have been on fire or boarded up in 1965.
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Dancing in the Street, 2019, Video, 2’, 50” min
THE ARTIST | MARK BRADFORD
Mark Bradford (b. 1961 in Los Angeles) is a contemporary artist known for his large-scale abstract paintings created out of paper. Characterized by its layered formal, material, and conceptual complexity, his work explores social and political structures that objectify marginalized communities and the bodies of vulnerable populations. After accumulating layers of various types of paper onto canvas, Bradford excavates their surfaces using power tools to explore economic and social structures that define contemporary subjects. His practice includes painting, sculpture, video, photography, printmaking, and other media. In addition to his studio practice, Bradford engages in social projects alongside exhibitions of his work that bring contemporary ideas outside the walls of exhibition spaces and into communities with limited exposure to art.
Bradford received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in1995 and his MFA from CalArts in 1997. He has since been widely exhibited internationally and received numerous awards. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art; Hauser & Wirth, Menorca; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Hauser & Wirth, London; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; and Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai.