LAND CLAIM

Tomashi Jackson’s show at the Parish Museum of Eastern Long Island explores the experiences—past and present—of communities of color on Long Island’s East End.

Tomashi Jackson (born 1980, Houston, TX) is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, textiles, sculpture, and video to place formal and material investigations in dialogue with recent histories of displacement and disenfranchisement of people of color. Her work has been collected by the Whitney, the Guggenheim, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The Land Claim is a multi-part exhibition of newly created work in painting, sound, photography, and archival materials that centers on the experiences—past and present—of communities of color on Long Island’s East End. The artist’s extensive research began in January 2020 when she conducted in-depth interviews with members of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities in the area. A conversation with a Shinnecock Nation member surfaced the history of land appropriation in the Hamptons and led to the exhibition’s title.

Jackson’s work quilts together current racial equity issues with research on historic injustice, subsequently melding the works together into an art historical narrative.

From a great article about the work from InTouchNews:
“Ashley James, Associate Curator at the Guggenheim, is fascinated by how Jackson adapts a concept Albers called “vibrating borders”, how neighboring saturated colors seem to interact and how colored people are perceived in public spaces. “She rejects the idea that aesthetics can be separated from our political history,” said James.”

Tomashi Jackson (American, born 1980), Ecology of Fear (Abrams for Governor of Georgia) (Negro Women wait to congratulate LBJ), 2020. Archival prints on PVC marine vinyl, Pentelic marble dust, acrylic paint, American election flyers, Greek ballot papers, paper bags, muslin 84 x 60 inches.