Tomashi Jackson
Silent Alarm
Pilar Corrias Conduit Street
March 8 – April 6, 2024
Tomashi Jackson’s (SMACT ’12) first solo show with Pilar Corrias gallery, Silent Alarm, debuts new paintings that examine the underlying connections between riots, patterns of systemic oppression, and community sound systems.
In her new paintings, Jackson visualises correlations between several historic Los Angeles- and London-based events, informed by archival research, first-person interviews, and her personal memories. These include layered stills from news coverage and documentaries on uprisings sparked by police violence and demonstrations for educational access that were met with excessive force, such as: the 1965 Watts Rebellion; the 1968 L.A. Chicano Student Walkouts, the UK Black Education Movement of the 1960s and 70s, 1992 L.A. Riots, which were precipitated by the acquittal of LAPD officers who were filmed beating unarmed motorist Rodney King, and the killing of Latasha Harlins in 1991; the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival; the public response to the 1981 New Cross Fire; the UK student demonstrations in 2010; and the uprisings that followed the killing of unarmed Mark Duggan by London police in 2011. Jackson also activates imagery relating to the sounds of the communities in focus, including Jazz and Blues from the 1950s, Freestyle Hip-Hop from the ’90s, Calypso from the ’70s, and Grime from the 2010s.
Read more about the exhibition here.
