Continue playing
(Time remaining: )
Play from beginning
Continue playing "{{ controller.videos[controller.getVideo(controller.currentVideo)].segmentParentTitle}}"
{{controller.videos[controller.getVideo(controller.currentVideo)].title}} has ended.
Zarouhie Abdalian with Kerry James Marshall at Prospect.3
Zaroughie Abdalian walks Kerry James Marshall through her installation at the New Orleans African American Museum, where she animates the built structures with recorded audio and mirrors to reflect on the history of labor.
“It was never my interest or intention to work with blighted properties of New Orleans—there’s plenty of opportunities for that.” —Zaroughie Abdalian
More information and creditsCredits
Artist to Artist Created & Produced by: Ian Forster. Editor: Morgan Riles. Cinematography: Ian Forster. Sound: Kyle Sheehan. Production Assistant: Christoph Lerch. Music: Pinch Music. An Art21 Workshop Production. © Art21, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved.
Kerry James Marshall at Prospect.3 was supported, in part, by The Lambent Foundation and by individual contributors.
Closed captionsAvailable in English, German, Romanian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian
Through the Art21 Translation Project, multilingual audiences from around the globe can contribute translations, making Art21 films more accessible worldwide.
Interested in showing this film in an exhibition or public screening? To license this video please visit Licensing & Reproduction.
Born in 1982 in New Orleans, Zarouhie Abdalian now lives in Oakland, California. Her site- and context-specific sculptures and installations are often located in public spaces and draw viewers into participating and engaging with their surroundings.
The subject matter of Kerry James Marshall’s paintings, installations, and public projects is often drawn from African American popular culture, and is rooted in the geography of his upbringing. Marshall’s work is based on a broad range of art-historical references, from Renaissance painting to black folk art, from El Greco to Charles White. A striking aspect of Marshall’s paintings is the emphatically black skin tone of his figures—a development the artist says emerged from an investigation into the invisibility of Black people in America and the unnecessarily negative connotations associated with darkness. The sheer beauty of his work speaks to an art that is simultaneously formally rigorous and socially engaged.