Preach R Sun, artist (USA)
SYNOPSIS
i be a TYRANT in black skin — no friends — walking around with shit caked on my mind so thick, my vision's constipated so all i see is bullshit. no one cares said, i just want to love; but heard a blind prophet say, that loves in need of love today. shit's ill, like some ole deadly disease. someone on this great big ball of blue caught the hate flu and sneezed, and the shit caught wings in a swift breeze and spread....
infecting us ALL! some ole contagious shit.
yet at the end of it all what if the cure lies in our ability to RE-MEMBER, my HUMANITY is your HUMANITY. My FREEDOM is your FREEDOM.
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FOR WHITES ONLY: was performed in Venice Italy (2016), as part of Venice International Performance Art Week. The entire action was performed over a duration of 7 days.
In 2016 Preach R Sun embarked on a flight to Venice Italy. Boarding a plane at JFK International Airport (NYC), Sun was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit with the words, ‘FOR WHITES ONLY' boldly stitched across the back. Upon his arrival in Venice (for an entire week) he would: paint himself in black face; dress up in the orange prison suit; attach himself (via lock and chain) to a 40-pound cinder block, and perambulate the streets of the city…. On the 7th day, Sun made himself known.
FOR WHITES ONLY — this action part of series iv (The Blocks - Points of Departure), of One-Man: The Liberation Project — explores the limits of true freedom and humanity as experienced through the burden of black racialized objectification, and the trapped condition or complex of black (externally imposed) inferiority referred to by sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois as 'double-consciousness'.
the link:
PREACH R SUN
Preach R Sun is a U.S. based conjurer and 'fugitivist' — "implementing social issues and political activism as performance matters". Sun, working at the interface of art and activism, essentially describes himself as an activist that incorporates performance art. Consolidating protest/resistance tactics with performance art strategies, Sun interrogates the nature and limits of freedom and humanity. Sun most often works on the street with guerilla actions, but also in festivals and galleries. He also uses performance and video as tools for social change – to further his mission of liberation. His work reflects his background of growing up as the son of a minister, and his training in dance, theater and the fine arts. In his own words, “Freedom is my creative praxis. As such my work serves as an investigative inquiry into the nature and limits of human freedom. Thus, the work should (both) provoke questions regarding our perceptions of freedom, while also demonstrating the strength and agency of individual action – pushing limits, challenging boundaries, and negating ALL ‘BLOCKS.’ I believe such action is not only inspirational, but instrumentally essential in galvanizing society towards the effort of TRUE liberation that brings into being universal freedom and humanity.
PURPOSE
"FREEDOM IS MY (LIFE'S) MISSION AND PRAXIS....
i am a self-proclaimed fugitive, on a mission to escape all boxes that circumscribe my being. ‘Fugitivism’ is the name I've adopted to describe my purpose and voice. My work is informed by struggle, and driven by a fervent desire for authentic liberation and social change….
i am not an artist. I’m a conjurer, and freedom is my praxis. i speak from soul. i am exorcising demons and revealing them to you. i am exposing the human pain body. i am a conjurer. My magic alters. My magic wages death on old worlds and calls new ones into being. i am a criminal — a fugitive. My crimes are iconoclasm and liberation. i am the pitch black that met the erratic vicissitudinous gaze of each, and every doubting runaway slave that found themselves staring down the double barrel of Black Moses’ (Harriet Tubman’s) shotgun. i am the ghost of: THERE IS NO TURNING BACK. i am the spirit of: BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. No, i am not an artist and this is not art. i am casting spells. ABSOLUTE LIBERATION, is my mission and purpose. i am, ONE-MAN: The Liberation Project."
