Rouse Visiting Artist Lecture: Kahlil Joseph, “Gamma”

Film Still by Filmmaker, Kahlil Joseph.

This event will be screening the following works by Kahlil Joseph:

  • Wildcat (5min), 2013
  • Process (35min), 2017
  • Black Mary (5min), 2017
  • Flypaper (25min), 2017

Kahlil Joseph is an American artist and filmmaker working in Los Angeles. In a cover profile of Joseph and his work, Art Papers writes:

“For years, the name Kahlil Joseph seems to have traveled via word of mouth: The New Yorker critic Hilton Als heard about him from writer Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts; Kara Walker found his work through artist Deana Lawson. The opening of Double Conscience (2015), however, inducts Joseph into the institutional framework that is contemporary art…Kahlil Joseph is best described as a filmmaker. What complicates that identity is that he’s a filmmaker who’s poised to profoundly disturb the boundaries between art forms, and disorder the depiction of race on film. His works erode lingering distinctions between music video, art-house film, and new media art. A common experience in front of one of his films seems to be that viewers don’t care what they think they are watching—they just want to see it again.”

Across his career, Joseph’s work has explored the space between music video, short film and art installation. He has collaborated with influential artists such as Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar, FKA twigs and Shabazz Palaces. His previous work includes Until the Quiet Comes, which received widespread critical acclaim and won the Grand Jury Prize for Short Films at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and Video of the Year at the UKMVA’s in 2013. The following year, the film was included in Kara Walker’s celebrated exhibit, Ruffneck Constructivists, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Joseph’s first solo major museum show, Double Conscience, comprising his double- channel film, m.A.A.d., at the Museum of Contemporary Art, ranked #1 in the “Top 10 Los Angeles Art Shows of 2015” by leading art/culture site HyperAllergic. In 2016, m.A.A.d. was featured at Art Basel’s 2016 Unlimited exhibit in Switzerland as well as the popular group show, The Infinite Mix, at the Southbank Centre in London. Joseph’s latest work, Fly Paper was exhibited in his solo exhibition Shadow Play at the New Museum in New York City in the fall of 2017. His works have also been exhibited at the Tate Museum, Prospect.4 New Orleans, Blum & Poe Gallery, the Frye Museum in Seattle, and part of a extensive solo exhibition at the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht NE. Joseph was Emmy and Grammy nominated for his direction of Beyonce’s feature length album film, Lemonade. He is a recipient of the 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 2017 Artadia Award, and 2017 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award.

Currently, Joseph serves as Vice President of the board at The Underground Museum, a vanguard and pioneering independent art museum, exhibition space and community hub in Los Angeles.

The GSD is pleased to present this program with a custom sound system by Funktion-One, generously provided by Sound Investment.

Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.

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