Ralph Lemon: From Out of Space
Ralph Lemon is a multidisciplinary artist, the founder of the Ralph Lemon Dance Company (1985–1995), and one of the most significant figures to emerge from New York’s postmodern performance scene in the last thirty years. This exhibition features examples of his photography, drawing, film, and video—inspired by extensive travels throughout the southern United States between 2002 and 2018—and his direct engagement with the history and legacies of the civil rights movement.
From Out of Space offers subtle and mesmerizing imagery that documents sites relating to the brutal 1955 murder of 14-year-old African American boy Emmett Till, who was abducted and lynched in Mississippi after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store; as well as locations where sit-ins, protest marches, and other significant events took place. In these works, and others which celebrate Black writers, singers, and Blues musicians, Lemon offers a meditation on pain, loss, memory, and joy.
IMAGE: Ralph Lemon, Untitled (Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market, Money, Mississippi), 2018, digital gelatin silver print. © Ralph Lemon. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Photo: Steven Probert Studio
