Tiona Nekkia McClodden: MASK / CONCEAL / CARRY

Tiona Nekkia McClodden considers the presence and absence of the Black figure and aesthetic tropes of representation through work traversing film, installation, sculpture, painting, and writing.“An artist who may be America’s most essential today.” —Siddhartha Mitter, The New York Times Known for her sharp examinations of biomythography and intersubjectivity, McClodden uses a research-based approach in her practice as an artist and self-described “historian and cultural custodian.” MASK / CONCEAL / CARRY dissects the many meanings of “masking,” “concealing,'' and “carrying.” McClodden creates films, paintings, and sculptures referencing cultural and historical objects including firearms, Benin Bronzes, and BDSM gimp masks. This exhibition pivots around the concept of “training to failure,” which proposes building muscle by pushing one’s body beyond its corporeal limits, to the point of temporary muscular breakdown. McClodden communicates a core awareness of the body as it corresponds to the fragile boundaries of the psyche and the spectrum of pain and pleasure that is revealed in these recurrent efforts.Through custom lighting, the artist carefully choreographs a performance between the work, space, and viewer. Adding to McClodden’s narrative and psychological concepts, this publication includes a curators note from Ebony L. Haynes, a poem by acclaimed writer and artist Rhea Dillon, and a conversation between poet Simone White and the artist.