“I, Eye”

“I, Eye” drék davis 9/23-10/21 9/23 opening reception Tues: 5-7pm P.M.D. Post Modem Discourse When considering imagery for a piece to include in my M.F.A. thesis exhibition, I wanted to create something that could address the persistence of stereotypes in the New Millennium - a work that would underline and interrogate then-President Bill Clinton's supposition that closing the Digital Divide would act as both a social and economic panacea. For that, I created P.M.D. or Post Modem Discourse. P.M.D. is now a series of mixed-media works, fashioned primarily from a re-purposed wooden chair with modern implements attached. The overall visage is based upon a mix of stereotypical imagery pulled from a range of Pop-Cultural references and more recently references to African statuary. Taken as a whole, the work is both a Post Modem Discourse and a Post Modern Discourse. Either the stereotypical imagery drives the future, or the technology drives the stereotypes. Using repurposed materials, P.M.D. acts as literal illustrations of what happens when the ‘old’ and ‘new’ collide. "P.M.D. has been enduring for me as a body of work, and thematically, because we are increasingly reminded of the importance of representation and self-reflection. These works always allow me to wrestle with how I show up in the world, and to contemplate the echoes of those whose memory I carry with me. Authentically investigating and confronting the multiplicity of voices that make up America allows for art to catalyze the conversations we should regularly be engaged in." bio A native of Monroe, Georgia, Rodrecas Davis is a 2006 graduate of the University of Georgia Fine Arts program - with an emphasis on drawing and painting. Primarily a mixed media artist, Davis is also a former columnist for the Athens Banner-Herald and Code Z Online: Black Visual Culture Now. Davis has presented papers at several academic conferences, including the HUIC Conference (Hawaii University International Conferences) Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, for which he discussed manifestations of Hip-Hop culture in the visual arts. His work has been featured in the Politics Issue of Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, ColorLines, and over sixty exhibitions. Mr. Davis is Professor, and Head of the Department of Visual & Performing Arts at Grambling State University, in Grambling, Louisiana. An inaugural recipient of the Take Notice Fund Grant, awarded by the National Performance Network (Ford Foundation). Davis served as juror of the 77th Annual Wabash Valley Exhibition, at the Swope Art Museum (IN), and was most recently awarded a Creative Residency Fellowship at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences, for Arts & Culture Administrators.