Sweepin' the Banquette activates the fading New Orleans tradition of “sweepin’ the banquette” (keeping a clean sidewalk) as a performance and metaphor for fractured family histories. Operating with an undercurrent of an ever-present storm and built on the filmic foundation of devisive reality, the piece repurposes a city ordinance related to the general upkeep of property fronts as a meditation on the erosion of cultural and familial tradition.

Mandatum draws it title from a gesture carried out for thousands of years throughout diverse geographies and religions: the act of washing another’s feet. Historically performed as a sign of humility, service, devotion, gratitude, piety or submission, here the exchange is recontextualized for a familial exchange, demonstrating an intergenerational breakdown between parents and child. While mother and father tend to one another with aged hands and feet, child performs this domestic ritual unattended. Mandatum novis do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos.

Evening Stuff recreates a nightly domestic ritual carried out by the artist’s grandparents, that of sharing a bottled Barq’s Root Beer. This profound yet simple demonstration of love is re-staged and memorialized by the artist’s parents, and is contrasted against abstract images sound of from the game show Wheel of Fortune, a program watched nightly by the artist’s grandmother after the passing of her husband. The artist inserts himself into this generational dialog, unaccompanied in the frame.

Booked For Safekeeping addresses faltering outlets for the containment and expression of violent impulses, the reactionary bluster of discourse in contemporary society and the isolation and paranoia developing within American communities. Juxtaposed against the grace, rhythm and force inherent within the motions of a boxer engaged in battle with himself are archival images from a 1960 film produced by the Louisiana Association for Mental Health addressing the apprehension and incarceration of “disturbed” people. While investigating the propensity and commonality of violence, the piece alludes to the distressing shift in tone and approach regarding the policing of communities, wherein patience, compassion, and de-escalation are too often replaced with militaristic distance and aggressive control. The piece premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival in October 2016, screened at the Rencontres Internationales and Ethnografilm Festivals, both in Paris in April 2017, was part of the Southern Margins Films Festival (Innovation Award) at Clemson University in South Carolina, debuted in NYC at Anthology Film Archives as part of the NewFilmmakers Series and screened at The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival in June 2017.

Vouchsafe is a short-form experimental video based on a punishment enforced by the artist’s grandfather, that of kneeling on the family’s heating grate. The performative and Catholic gesture is accompanied by a broken, adapted reading of “A prayer before confession”, found in the pocket prayer book once belonging to the artist’s grandmother. The piece addresses self-image and self-worth, penance, forgiveness and doubts about the preparedness to pass along cultural legacies, as well as the unanswered calls and un-received responses to ancestors for guidance. Premiering at the 2017 New Orleans Film Festival.

Group Therapy (For _____) focuses on the confrontation of death as a gesture of escapism, unfulfilled familial expectations and broken lines of intergenerational communication. The piece centers the domestic ritual of bed-making as a metaphor for the covering up or denial of mental illness while also existing as a previsualized, preparatory form of therapy in dealing with the impending death of a loved one. The central image and gesture of making the bed is cut against archival institutional film from the 1950’s that focuses on therapy related to childhood psychological development; the archival footage is deconstructed and repeated to establish a frantic, unsettled and confused pace and rhythmic sensibility. Within this framework lies a confrontation of mortality, a consideration of personal legacy and memorial creation for those who have passed on. This juxtaposition of contemporary and archival media examines the permanence and sustainability of vernacular legacies, and questions current generations’ capacity to carry family histories towards posterity. Group Therapy (For _____) represents a chapter of a twelve-year series of short form experimental video works concerning domestic rituals, archival interventions, intergenerational communication and the confrontation with death as a gesture of liberation and ascension that recontextualizes the archive as form, concept and subject matter.

Brad’s Book is part of a series of videos investigating the dilution of a fleeting family history. In the piece we witness an attempt to gather the presumably ruined family portraits that float in a swimming pool. A voiceover indicates an intimacy with the subjects while addressing the limits of memory. The piece is developed with a hypnotic pacing and the mesmerizing sound of a seemingly non-present storm. Familial schisms seem to riddle the work as each figure is addressed alone, and the futility of an attempt to close generational gaps brings to head the role of personal perception in family lineage.

Flee is a video based on the idea of freedom through evasion or flight. The piece pairs an escaping figure that runs desperately through an unidentifiable landscape with the view from the windshield of a car that drives across the bridge that separates New Orleans from the mainland. Both images are projected upon a brick wall that implies the hopelessness of such escape. This work is accompanied by the ballad Flee Like the Birds to the Mountains originally written by Jelly-Roll Morton. This work has been arranged and performed with a solitary soprano saxophone by Jason R. Thompson and its slow and hypnotic movement contrasts the high speed of the video works. (Made in collaboration with Justin Randolph Thompson)

I’m Gone is a performance and installation that reflects upon confinement and the systematic validation of archival records as a metaphor for death and escape, played out in collaborative gestures by Justin Randolph Thompson and Bradly Dever Treadaway. I’m Gone è una performance e istallazione che e riflette sulla reclusione e la validazione sistematica di documenti d'archivio come una metafora per la morte e la fuga, attroverso i gesti di collaborativi di Justin Randolph Thompson e Bradly Dever Treadaway.

The Antenna of the Race is a media-based installation that centers on three conceptual foundations: engaging Marshall McLuhan’s theory on historic labor division as a primer for thriving in an ‘acoustic environment’, the diffusion of electricity, radio, television and digital signals and a critical deconstruction of authenticity and cultural appropriation and genealogical legacies. McLuhan’s examination of the simultaneity of the media assault sets the service culture as one of playing roles in contrast to specialization and literacy of a ruling class as pursuing goals, ultimately determining that the role players are more capable of thriving in a hyper saturated acoustic world given their forced adaptability. Drawing upon the disappearing remnants of utilitarian architecture in the boroughs, a room within a room is created that simultaneously enhances the intimacy of the environment while fully immersing the viewer in an audio-visual experience that both mesmerizes and immobilizes. This community-oriented proposal engages the local community in the creation of an archive that litters a range of television sets and speakers inset into the walls of the installation. The architecture of sound is elaborated through the creation of walls based on the forms of early speaker technology and the acoustic modulation of space.

Sweet Exorcist is an installation and performance based on spiritual eviction. The systematic classification of a familial archive, the maintenance of ancestral safety buoys and the adjustment of hybrid musical instruments drive the sounding rhythm of photo based sculpture exploring the absence of a concrete linear foundation. The installation is composed of four dominant sculptural elements that form the backdrop for a performance work that engages students of Texas A&M in the art and music departments. Billboard size announcement boards layered with wheat pasted family archives, a mausoleum floor made from safety rubber, a shallow house façade wedged against the wall giving space to cubicle like structures and a wall built from head-shaped safety buoys share the space with a series of documents suspended from clotheslines. This range of elements transports the viewers into a realm pregnant with performative evidence that resonates between spiritual redemption and sterile passage. A mass performance takes place opening night involving the classifying and certification of anagraphic documents, upkeep around collective legacies and sound exultation.

Trailer - Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics Justin Randolph Thompson and Bradly Dever Treadaway The related workshops, installation and performance concern and confront the integration prescribed by Brown Vs. Board of Education in an interdisciplinary community based project that materializes in a segregated installation of textiles and lens based works. The project confronts political, social and class-based constructs of race and integration through direct dialog between artist of different cultural, geographical and racial legacies. Perspectives on African-American Experience: Emerging Visions Lookout! Gallery - Residential College of Arts and Humanities, Michigan Sate University Musical Director, Composer - Jason Thompson Conductor, Composer - John Meyers Choreography - Lisa Biggs Videography - Steve Baibak and Elsa Finch Drummers - Joey Hathaway, Camille Thomas, Lee Wang Musicians - Patrick Dame, Peter Drogosh, Cullen Hudson, Emily Seigneurie, Rachel Tuller, Shawn Vannocker Archivists - Haleigh Moore Dancers - Workshop Collaborators - Shaylyn Adams, Althea Arnold, Marcus Lee, Emma Foley, Rachel Goldman, Valerie Gray, Melanie LaBerge, Haleigh Moore, Sydney Richards, Rachel Scott, Champagne Smith, Joseph Snowaert, Rachel Tang, Alexa White Special Thanks to: Many, many, many more to come Carolyn Loeb MSU Surplus Tama Hamilton-Wray

Justin Randolph Thompson and Bradly Dever Treadaway Primer for Well Water is an installation and performance that examines the social cleansing and eroding powers of water. Drawing its title from allusions to Robert P. T. Coffins celebration of American Culture in his Primer for America and from Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem Primer for Blacks, the piece takes an interdisciplinary approach to collective and specifically documented identities from Afro American and Euro American inheritance, providing a primer for considering the US’s cultural inheritance. Musical Director Jason Thompson Project Producer/Conductor Katie Waugh Archivists Elizabeth Ingham Carley Legg Luna Kolz Shalisa Chang Abena Poku BDT's Crew on Videography Regina Aguragh Tim Frazier Alaina Kelahan Alex Torea Tegan Watson Musicians Kim Brighn - Viola Laura Campbell - Flute Courtney Fesko - Flute Katelyn Moore - Tenor Sax Jenn Richardson - Cello Chris Tinozzi - Trombone Dancers Taylor Babb Jeanne Goddard Bethany Gore Jasmine Milton Mariah Thurston Mold Maker Tyler Bischoff Well Cranker Jen Thompson Art Student Contributors Talyor Babb Kim Brighton Jazmine Ferguson Tyler Francis Mariaelena Garcia Brittany Haigh Elizabeth Ingham Luna Kolz Katelyn Moore Abena Poku Katherine Puello Katelyn Costello Juelle Dixson Alaina Kelahan Melissa Molina Tegan Watson Student Art Gallery Staff Regina Agoruah Shalisa Chang Mariaelena Garcia Katelyn Moore Abena Poku Rebecca Rodas Yakeima Simma Special Thanks to Gerardo Cummings Dan Wentworth Scott Laffer Dana Skinner Joe Dyson Brian Brown Arthur Fritz Joe DeForrest Jeanne Goddard Elizabeth Ingham The Ingham Family Alex Torea Special Thanks to Wells College The Thompson Family International Center of Photography 2014

Hand for a Hand is an installation, performance and video related to the constructs of labor, ascension and archival intentions. The work is made in collaboration with Justin Randolph Thompson at the Contemporary Arts Center at Woodside, NY.