If you’ve never experienced a Mandeville Center cultural event, consider giving conceptual artist Lauren Woods’ multimedia exhibit “M(other)land” a quick peek the next time you find yourself near Main Gym.
While the messages behind some of her videos and images are sometimes hard to grapple, a long look at the new exhibit reveals the Bay Area artist’s fascination with the identity of power that surrounds the American perspective of Africa.
Upon entering the darkened gallery, peaceful choral music fills our ears, the only presence in a spacious white room. If you can resist the urge to curl up in the corner and sleep off last night’s party, your eyes will be drawn to several screens.
To your left is a large projection of hip-hop king Ludacris haloed by golden light, superimposed on a stereotypical African backdrop — grass huts, an elephant, a kneeling woman holding a basket and a tribal warrior with a spear. Woods asks us to deconstruct our media-influenced stereotypes of Africa, while Ludacris’ shirt us a resonating Marcus Garvey quote: “A people without knowledge of its past is like a tree without roots.”
Working your way clockwise around the room, you’ll find the back corner partitioned off. There, a double projection in blue, black and white features a Hollywood-constructed image of stampeding African men in loincloths. Because it’s projected onto two walls at a right angle, it looks like the horde is running directly toward us.
It’s not immediately recognizable, but the installation is also interactive: You can add your own twist to the exhibit by standing in front of the projector. Just make sure the curator doesn’t catch you fooling around with your shadow.
Further along the back wall are two blurry nature photographs, each with a black rectangle obscuring part of the image. Headphones provide an eclectic safari-inspired soundtrack for your listening pleasure. The obscure handful of stimuli could mean a lot of things, but the gallery brochure explains that these photographs are part of the “Vortex” series: a response and reformulation of “the idea of Africa.”
The back of the gallery contains several more “Vortex” pieces to fall into, while a dark back room juxtaposes disturbing screams and flashing machine-gun recordings. The installation’s final eye-catcher is a five-screen setup that displays clips of the African coastline as portrayed by Western media.
Known for her multidisciplinary work combining video, sound, installation and photography to deconstruct pop culture, race and other social constructs, Woods’ “M(other)land” is no exception — and it’s the first time her body of work, known as “The Africa Archives,” has been shown all together. Don’t miss it.
The artist will give a talk about her work on March 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the VAF Performing Arts Space. “M(other)land” will be on display Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. until March 20.
