A Conversation with Kevin Jerome Everson
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I’m hanging out, coolin’, on the frames that connect the necessity and the coincidence. Formally, that is.
—Kevin Jerome Everson
On the afternoon of October 30, 2012, as wind gusts associated with Superstorm Sandy rip through the University of Virginia, the prolific filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson wraps up the last major scene of Sugarcoated Arsenic, a cinematic exploration of black intellectual life in the post-Civil Rights South. To the eclectic cast of actors gathered in the West Oval Room of the historic Rotunda, a visibly emotional Everson articulates his deep appreciation for their artistic contributions, as well as their Job-like patience during less than ideal weather conditions. Collective euphoria momentarily suspends concerns about the weather’s impact on the film’s visual images and audio. Notwithstanding the technical and scheduling difficulties engendered by the storm, Sugarcoated Arsenic achieves its artistic purpose. Starring Erin Stewart as Vivian Gordon,1 the film beautifully conveys how African American students and faculty—through their public and private gestures—created a vibrant community built on intellectual exchange, self-critique, and human warmth. Everson’s judicious fusion of scripted and documentary moments not only blur the lines between fiction and reality but also complicate conventional ideas about race, politics, and community in 1970s America.
A testament to Everson’s indefatigable work ethic, Sugarcoated Arsenic, which had its world premiere at the 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam, is just one of many Everson films completed in the past two years. In fact, a week before Sugarcoated Arsenic premiered in Rotterdam, Everson’s FE26, a provocative short film on black working-class life in East Cleveland, screened at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. Everson’s Motown-like productivity and perfection has not escaped the notice of the art world’s most esteemed critics and tastemakers.
His unerring eye for the aesthetic beauty found in the everyday gestures of black working women and men has garnered him numerous fellowships and grants, including most recently the 2012 Alpert Award in the Arts. His inclusion in the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art’s Biennial 2012 exhibit, along with featured stories in The New York Times and Artforum, confirm his status as one of the most prodigious visual artists of our contemporary moment. The seriousness in which the Mansfield, Ohio, native takes his craft was readily apparent in our four-hour discussion on art, memory, and place. [End Page 802]
Twenty years after gaining national attention as a featured artist in Thelma Golden’s highly controversial Black Male exhibit at the Whitney Museum in New York City, you remain a central and influential figure in the world of experimental art. Talk about your artistic development and the institutional spaces that nurtured your embrace of formalism.
As an undergraduate in the late 1980s, I was involved in a number of group shows at the University of Akron School of Art in Akron, Ohio. I primarily made mixed medium sculptures that used a variety of materials such as handmade paper, metal, paint, blood, sperm, ink, and other ephemera. For one particular exhibition, my parents drove down to Akron. They were pleased with the work but puzzled to say the least. I realized I had to think about making art that would be more generous and allow for a more expansive set of references and experiences for different viewers, but still embrace an art language. I had to develop a strategy that would be inclusive for communities, working-class Midwestern Black folks, and the local, national, and international art worlds.
Could you discuss that strategy?
The strategy I laid forth was craft. I wanted the work to look professional or well made. I like the conversations that evolve around well-made objects. I began to make multiples objects. The viewers often assumed I engaged in this process of making multiples for some Joseph Beuys-esque reason or strategy. That could not have been further from the truth. I made the objects look good as the most direct and honest way to impress the “crafts person” or the layperson. It was an avenue for “folks” from different levels of discipline...
