July 13 - October 13, 2002
ONE PLANET UNDER A GROOVE: HIP HOP AND CONTEMPORARY ART
Exhibition
GALLERY A
   
While New York's borough of the Bronx is widely accepted as the birthplace of hip-hop in the early 1970s, that culture is now an international phenomenon. The popularization of this urban-style music, with its accompanying clothes and imagery, transcends race, class, and economic spheres. Although graffiti art, DJ-ing, rapping, and break dancing have all received popular and critical attention, One Planet under a Groove: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art is the first exhibition to examine their transnational impact on contemporary art. Among the 30 featured artists whose work draws from the aesthetic, political, and social contexts of hip-hop culture are Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hammons, Susan Smith-Pinelo, Keith Haring, Chris Ofili, Renée Green, Adrian Piper, and Gary Simmons. Organized by the Bronx Museum of the Arts, this landmark exhibition highlights some 60 works created over the past two decades by artists based in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The work on view reflects the evolution of hip-hop from the marginalized urban street cultures of black and Latino communities to a billion-dollar industry pervading a broad international public.

 
 
Image
Edgar Arceneaux
SPOCK, TUVAC, TUPAC
Courtesy Museum Of Contemporary Art, San Diego
Photo: Pablo Mason

One Planet under a Groove reinforces the concept of a prehistory, particularly through its title, drawn from the 1978 Funkadelics song "One Nation under a Groove." Pieces such as Piper's Funk Lessons (1983) or Hammons' I Am the Greatest! (2001), an audio selection of Muhammad Ali's self-advertisements, point to hip-hop's roots in earlier forms of black music and cultural expression. Also on view are works created in direct dialogue with the vibrant street culture that emerged in the Bronx, spread to other working-class neighborhoods in New York City, and then mixed with Manhattan's art and club scene by the early 1980s. In particular, the exhibition suggests that the frenetic, graffiti-like style of painting and drawing by Basquiat and Haring literally evokes the "cutting" and "scratching" techniques of early DJs. Coreen Simpson's B-boy photographs document the old-school street fashions of the mid-1980s. Dario Robleto takes a nostalgic turn with his sculptural installation Sometimes the Top 40 Makes Me Feel Like an Empty Maine Coastal Cottage in the Dead of Winter (2001), which is made from melted vinyl records and is a reminder of music's power to evoke sentimentality. Like the "consciousness raising" or message rappers of the late 1980s and early 1990s, pieces by such artists as Mel Chin, Green, and Simmons challenge common stereotypes. Chicago-based Max King Cap's Counted, Tracked, Observed (1998), comprised of three Carhartt jackets with one word from the title of the work stitched onto each, comments on racial profiling and stereotyping of young African-American males. Others, such as painter Chris Ofili, use innovative formal devices to manipulate cultural clichés and subvert more conventional characterizations of hip-hop.


OCTOBER EVENTS

FREE TOURS
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2 PM
Join the Walker Art Center's knowledgeable tour guides for a lively, engaging, and informative tour of the exhibition.

SEPTEMBER EVENTS

FREE TOURS
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2 PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2 PM
Join the Walker Art Center's knowledgeable tour guides for a lively, engaging, and informative tour of the exhibition.

AUGUST EVENTS

FREE TOURS
SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 2 PM
SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2 PM
Join the Walker Art Center's knowledgeable tour guides for a lively, engaging, and informative tour of the exhibition.

FREE THURSDAY WORKSHOP: (UN)SCENE WORKSHOPS:TURNTABLE WORKSHOP
THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 5-9 PM
In conjunction with the exhibition One Planet under a Groove: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art, explore the art of sound sampling and manipulation using turntables and vinyl records. Find out about beat juggling, needle drops, and body tricks as you get a hands-on orientation by Aaron "Money," founder of Radio K's show The Beat Box.

FREE THURSDAY PERFORMANCE: ONE WORD, ONE MIC, ONE MOVEMENT, ONE PLANET
THURSDAY, AUGUST 15 7 PM, AUDITORIUM
The Minnesota Spoken Word Association (MNSWA) heats up the scene with this performance featuring some of the Twin Cities' most innovative spoken-word, break-dancing, and hip-hop artists. Copresented with MNSWA, in conjunction with the Singers of Daybreak Spoken Word Conference (August 17-18) and the National Poetry Slam (August 13-17).


JULY EVENTS

WALKER AFTER HOURS: MADE FROM SCRATCH
FRIDAY JULY 12, 7-10 PM $14 ($7 AGES 20 AND UNDER, WALKER MEMBERS)
Details on the sights, sounds, spectacle, and splash, here.

OPENING-WEEKEND TALK
SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2 PM $6 ($3 WALKER MEMBERS AND STUDENTS) AUDITORIUM
Rapper-breaker-visual artist Fab 5 Freddy, a member of the first hip-hop generation, addresses the history and current state of hip-hop and its effect on the art world.

ARTIST TALK: EDGAR ARCENEAUX
THURSDAY, JULY 18, 6:30 PM
On a tour of the exhibition, Arceneaux explores the relationship between hip-hop and the art of wordplay. Meet in the lobby.

FREE THURSDAY WORKSHOP: DANCE WORKSHOP: FREE YOUR MIND AND YOUR FEET WILL FOLLOW
THURSDAY, JULY 25, 7 PM
Discover the good, the bad, and the funky way to dance to old-school and new-school hip-hop. This class is appropriate for ages 10 and older. Limited to 15 participants.

FREE TOURS
SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2 PM
Join the Walker Art Center's knowledgeable tour guides for a lively, engaging, and informative tour of the exhibition.



ONE PLANET UNDER A GROOVE: HIP HOP AND CONTEMPORARY ART WAS ORGANIZED BY THE BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS. THE EXHIBITION WAS MADE POSSIBLE, IN PART, BY MAJOR SUPPORT FROM THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION AND THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS.