Archinect - News

Olalekan Jeyifous' reconstituted 'Unmonument' comes to Brooklyn with the Black Reconstruction Collective

2024-07-30T13:01:00-04:00

Next week, Brooklyn’s Weeksville Heritage Center begins the first of a new imaginative public art installations series from the Black Reconstruction Collective. There, the industrial ‘Unmonument’ will take center stage starting August 8 as the instigator of several other small site activations surrounding it. The aim is to challenge the conventional notions of what the collective says are the most frequently perpetuated ‘myths’ about power, permanence, and the collective experience of the societies that construct them.

As a memorial to the many liberated Black diasporic communities across the country, such as Weeksville, the installation highlights an important narrative within Black history and is augmented by programming from the multidisciplinary oral tradition incubator Black Discourse.

The Crown Heights rendition, reconfigured by Olalekan Jeyifous, precedes Sekou Cooke's Syracuse contribution in September; another from Felecia Davis in Bellefonte, PA, in December; and, next ye...

The Black Reconstruction Collective honors cultural practitioners Tonika Lewis Johnson and Ife Salema Vanable in inaugural prize

2022-07-28T18:51:00-04:00

Continuing with its mission to support and acknowledge Black cultural agents of change within the community, the Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC) has announced the winners of its inaugural Black Reconstruction Collective Prize. Made possible with support from the Mellon Foundation, the BRC recognizes Chicago-based photographer/social justice artist Tonika Lewis Johnson and Bronx-based architect, historian, and theorist Ife Salema Vanable as this year's winners.

"This prize was created by the founders of the Black Reconstruction Collective as a way to launch the organization as a funder and support system for Black creatives," shares the BRC. Both will receive an unrestricted monetary prize of $5,000, allowing them to use the funds to carry out their design pursuits as they see fit. Newly appointed BRC Collaborative Manager Michelle Lisa Polissaint writes, "Ife and Tonika exemplify the mission of the Black Reconstructive Collective & I'm so excited to spend the next year working...

The Black Reconstruction Collective, dedicated to supporting Black creatives, is currently searching for a Collaborative Coordinator

2022-01-25T15:10:00-05:00

In 2019, ten architects, artists, designers, and academics came together to discuss their plans for an upcoming exhibition with MoMA's curatorial team. Emanuel Admassu, Germane Barnes, Sekou Cooke, J. Yolande Daniels, Felecia Davis, Mario Gooden, Walter J. Hood, Olalekan Jeyifous, V. Mitch McEwen, and Amanda Williams gathered to discuss what their involvement and exhibition would be and represent. These conversations and exchanges of thoughts and opinions helped birth the Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC).

Founded in 2020, the BRC has gone on to develop groundbreaking work like the MoMA exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, as well as receiving grants from the Graham Foundation, Open Society, and the Mellon Foundation.

At their core, the group's primary mission "to multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary work" is dedicated to dismantling "systemic white supremacy and hegemonic whiteness within art, design, and academia." The founding members exercised ...

'Architecture as a vehicle for liberation and joy:' Michael Kimmelman in conversation with the Black Reconstruction Collective

2021-03-11T19:02:00-05:00

What’s below is a conversation with members of the Black Reconstruction Collective, which came together during the past year and a half, in tandem with an exhibition now at the Museum of Modern Art called “Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.” The collective’s members are the 10 architects, artists and designers in the exhibition.

NYT architecture critic Michael Kimmelman has published a condensed version of his conversation with Amanda Williams, Emanuel Admassu, J. Yolande Daniels, and V. Mitch McEwen — four of the ten architects, designers, and artists of the Black Reconstruction Collective whose work is currently featured in the MoMA exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.

Related on Archinect:

MoMA agrees to temporarily cover Philip Johnson's name with Black Reconstruction Collective artwork

2021-03-02T13:59:00-05:00

The debate over Philip Johnson's past and ongoing legacy continues: after The ---- Johnson Study Group published an open letter calling for all institutions to remove the name of Philip Johnson from "every leadership title, public space, and honorific of any form" in response to the architect's documented Fascist past and support of white supremacy, the Museum of Modern Art, where he was the Director at the Department of Architecture, has now agreed to temporarily cover up Johnson’s name during the run of its current exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.

A 10-by-10 foot denim textile piece created collaboratively by the nonprofit Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC) and printed with the group's "Manifesting Statement" will greet visitors at the exhibition entrance, blocking the museum's permanent gallery signage.

Previously on Archinect: Creative community issues a call to remove Philip Johnson's name because of his fascist past

"We accepted their exhib...

New MoMA exhibition investigates architecture, Blackness, and anti-Black racism in America

2021-02-12T12:57:00-05:00

Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America is the fourth installment of the Issues in Contemporary Architecture series at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The exhibition investigates the intersections of architecture, Blackness, and anti-Black racism in the United States.

Olalekan Jeyifous. …other seasonal occupancy neighborhoods. 2020. Courtesy of Olalekan Jeyifous. The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Moreover, the featured projects will look at contemporary architecture and its role in the systemic racism that has facilitated discrimination and injustice in the U.S. A system that has informed and continues to inform the design of American cities through public policies, municipal planning, and architecture that has specifically impacted the Black community.

J. Yolande Daniels, principal, studioSUMO | Los Angeles. Race Plate. 2020. Digital rendering, 24 x 36″ (61 x 91.4 cm). Image courtesy of the artist. The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Reconstructions will feature 10 n...