Throughout her career, the artist Steffani Jemison has explored ideas of improvisation, repetition, and the fugitive in black history and vernacular culture in her work. Her 2010–11 video
Escaped Lunatic depicts a steady stream of black figures running across the screen, sprinting, jumping, and rolling through the streets of Houston. Part of a trilogy, the work borrows its narrative structure from early 20th-century cinema, making use of the chase genre, which often depicted African Americans in scenes of flight from various forms of authority. Jemison shot the video with a Houston-based parkour team, a professional sports group that specializes in using movement to get through complex environments. Produced while the artist was living in Houston, the video links a structure borrowed from early cinema to a contemporary scene, boldly connecting the unjust conditions of urban life and representation of black lives across time.
Through July 27 only, you can watch Steffani Jemison's
Escaped Lunatic on our website.
Read "
How Do Black Lives Matter in MoMA's Collection?" by curator Thomas Lax on the Inside/Out blog.
Download "
Steffani Jemison: Promise Machine—A Movement in Five Parts" by Martha Joseph and Thomas Lax.
Watch an excerpt of
Steffani Jemison: Promise Machine.
