Translocation & Transfiguration Explores Social Complication of "Blackness"

The sustained multi-generational trauma visited upon the black body; and objectification, marginalization, commodification; necessitated a set of subversive practices and responses to insure survival. Through mixed media installations of sculpture, sound, video, photography, imagery and text, Olufani investigates how tributaries of philosophical transference are manifested in the struggle of the African American community, and how modalities for survival serve as inspiration to a society fragmented by racism, sexism and extreme expressions of nationalism.

Masud Olufani is an Atlanta based multidisciplinary artist, actor and writer. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and the Savannah College of Art and Design. His work has been featured in group and solo exhibits nationally and internationally. His writing has been featured in Scalawag magazine, Burnaway, Bahai Teachings, and he was a contributing writer for the Jacob Lawrence Struggle Series catalogue, published by Peabody Essex Museum. He's the co-host of Retro Report on PBS, an investigative news show that looks at news events through the lens of history.

Hive:Elegy to the Fallen is a mixed media installation deriving its inspiration from the systemic brutality visited upon black bodies through interaction with some members of the police. The hive with its cluster of black bees, suggests the enduring resiliency of community.

As part of the installation, Hive:Elegy to the Fallen, these are images black and brown people who were victims of brutality by some members of the police.

Pipeline is a multi-media installation exploring the link, or pipeline, between the school system and the prison system in regards to the mistreatment of black men in the United States.

Tight Packers takes its inspiration from a 19th century term used to refer to a method for packing slaving vessels by forcing as many people as possible into the hold of a ship to maximize profit at port. The practice was ill conceived however, as the crowded conditions made the ships breeding grounds for pestilence and disease. The term is re-appropriated here to refer to the disproportionate number of black and brown men confined in U.S. prisons.

Here's another view of Olufani's Tight Packers installation which utilizes sardine cans to represent the cells in which black and brown men are confined in U.S. prisons.

This closeup features Olufani's sketches of the faces of incarcerated black and brown men in U.S. prisons. To the right is a cap & gown representing lost opportunities for most of these man, including higher education.

This artwork investigates a phrase associated with the black vernacular tradition. Referring to the relative size of the lips of people from the African diaspora, the term derives from the mythological notion that black lips are so large they could cool a pot of soup with one blow. In this context, what was once seen as a grotesque aspect of black physicality has been reinterpreted through humor-a powerful mechanism for survival.

This seriagraph about the commodification of Black body parts is an installation featured in Masud Olufani's exhibit Translocation & Transfiguration.

The work on the left is entitled Soup Coolers and investigates a phrase commonly associated with the black vernacular tradition referring to the size of the lips of people from the African diaspora. The term derives from the mythological notion that black lips are so large that they could cool a pot of soup with one blow. The work on the right is Constellation with items in the shape of bullets, attempting to articulate the anxiety of black boys existing in spaces of tension between points of safety and threatened destruction.

Freedom's Price honors the freedom riders whose non-violent protest was waged to integrate interstate busing. The installation is composed of silk screened mugshot images of protesters-each with a loaded slingshot facing them. At the heart of the installation a dividing wall separates a porcelain drinking fountain from a spigot, above which a vintage segregation sign designates white and colored only. Clusters of stones on the floor suggest the blows endured to actualize a higher ideal.

This seriagraph is part of the ""Puns from Auntie's Rosetta Stone"" installation in Masud Olufani's exhibit Translocation & Transfiguration. This installation is about decoding and exploring Black vernacular.

This artwork is part of the "Puns from Auntie's Rosetta Stone" installation about decoding and exploring Black vernacular. Whip can mean a good looking car (slang) or an instrument used for flogging or beating a person or animal.