Finding Fanon: Larry Achiampong & David Blandy
August 25 - October 7, 2017
“Finding Fanon,” is a three-part film series and installation inspired by the lost plays of Frantz Fanon, a politically radical humanist whose research and writing looked at the psychological effects of colonization and the social and cultural consequences of decolonization. UK-based artists Larry Achiampong and David Blandy examine Fanon’s ideas, and consider how society, race and racism affect our relationships with each other in an age of new technology, pop culture and globalization. The presentation at Fort Worth Contemporary Arts was the first time that all three films had been presented to U.S. audiences.
The artists’ exploration of Fanon’s ideas is played out through scripts that combine found texts and personal stories. In the first film the drama unfolds in a junkyard boathouse at an unspecified time in the future, as the two protagonists confront past events that have shaped their relationship. In the second film personal and family narratives that relate to colonial history are transposed to the virtual space of a simulated environment in the game space of Grand Theft Auto 5. In the third film the artists address the future, suggesting how their children might define or interpret Fanon’s prophecies.
The three films are loosely based on the collaboration of Frantz Fanon and Jean-Paul Sartre and their recognition of the problems and pain caused by the rich and politically powerful of the West on the poor and less privileged lives of colonized people. Presented as a meditation on the fragility of friendships, the films suggest what the lost plays of Frantz Fanon could have been.
Installation & live performance images by Lynné Bowman Cravens
