"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't" Exhibition

"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't"
Creative Alliance at The Patterson
3134 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21224
On View September 13- October 25
http://www.creativealliance.org



A strange vibe brought me to this touring exhibition of video works by completely different artists. First of all, the title is derived from a classic jazz song, "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby", which happens to be my ringtone at the moment. More importantly, I wanted to know how this song brought all of these video pieces together. Then, I noticed that Karen Yasinsky, a lecturer in the Film & Media Department at Johns Hopkins University, had a piece of her animation in the exhibit. At first I thought there might be another animatin’ Karen Yasinky, but when I mentioned the show to her she knew exactly what I was talking about. On top of that, there was the mention of a half naked woman swimming with a shark-fin on her head that piqued my weird curiosity and made me feel like this had to be my first art exhibition experience. These seemed like solid reasons to make a journey to the Creative Alliance, so I grabbed my roommate’s camera and prepared to open my mind.
When I arrived at the Patterson, an array of noises acted as a guide to the main gallery. I wasn’t surprised, but a bit disappointed that I was the only one there. It would have been fun to feed off of other people’s reactions, but I think I absorbed a lot by being able to respond to each piece as if I were in the privacy of my own living room. The first part of the exhibit I found myself reacting to was the sort of mission statement of the exhibit which began: “‘Is You Is or Is You Ain’t’ explores the zone between play-acting and metamorphosis, a place where we go to pretend we’re something other than what we are, or to change ourselves altogether.” This purpose of the exhibit stuck with me throughout my wandering around the space, and wander is what I did.
All of the pieces could stand alone, but the fact that they are all together works in some ways, and annoyed me in others. Winter in America by Hank Willis Thomas and Kambui Olujimi does a surprisingly good job of creating sentiment using toys and stop motion to tell a tragic story about gun violence. However, whenever I tried to hear the storyline of the AnC short film Mustache2, I had to focus my ears a little too much because there was an Outkast song blasting from the corner where Winter In America was playing. I was thankful that there were headphones provided to listen to Kalup Linzy’s KKQueens Survey, because the subject matter was out of control and had a lot to say about ‘play-acting’.
What interested me about the other pieces, Yasinsky’s quivering animation, Simone Montemurno’s assumption of a shark’s disguise, and Laura Parnes’ interest in watching humans vs. animals, is that they were silent.

Christen Cromwell is a senior Film and Media Studies major, Theater Arts Studies minor at The Johns Hopkins University. A Baltimore native, she loves children, black & white films, and strawberry cake.