Juneteenth in Celebration of Freedom, Hampton Art Lovers Presents "BLACK Card: Transactions of Cultural Currency” a new installation, featuring the art of Brandon Clarke | Sponsored by SE Overtown Park West CRA | EllEven Vodka | Duke & Dame Whiskey |Art of Black Miami (GMCVB).
Hampton Art Lovers Commissioned and Curated in collaboration with Brandon Clarke, "BLACK Card". With "BLACK Card..." Clarke explores Black artistic expression at the intersection of cultural authenticity and various forms of credit or currency in the contemporary moment. Clarke’s art work wrestles with a range of critical questions: “How did the “Black Card” become a signifier of racial authenticity? “Who has access to an authentic Black identity? And “What is the relationship between the figurative Black Card and its high-end counterpart in the material world of credit and currency? Clarke’s work deconstructs the concept of the “Black Card” as a euphemism for Black identity, exploring its suggestive solidarity and reflecting on its symbolic and material presence in the lived experience of African Americans.
For Clarke, it is no accident that the “Black Card” has also come to represent an ultra-exclusive high-end credit status that is regularly referenced in pop culture as the ultimate signifier of elite access and invitation-only access. Much like the symbolic, the Black (credit) card, represents access that is limited to a select, authentic few. The Black Card is cultural currency with intrinsic value tied to the perception of it as an authentic status symbol. Traditional (or material) currency is generally associated with financial systems, but the scope of cultural currency is far-reaching, encompassing not only financial units of exchange but works of art, critical ideas and the material objects of culture. By juxtaposing these complicated concepts of the Black Card, Clarke’s work underscores the contradictions and exclusive practices that shape Black identity. Brandon Clarke’ “BLACK Card . . .” generates new possibilities for the discourses on Black identity and inside-outside dynamics within the African American community. It challenges the fixed parameters of African-American culture and the wider community at large.
