Ebony G. Patterson: Dead Treez
Ends 12/4
@808 Gallery

The façade of the spectacle is only in the first fleeting moments of encountering the work of Ebony G. Patterson. The large multi-media installations that make up Dead Treez, currently on view at Boston University, are as initially dazzling as they are intimate and powerful. Using found objects, Patterson weaves together large tapestries that cover the gallery walls and floors. Through layers of lace and sequins the shadowy outlines of prostrate figures appear. In another installation, mannequins slouch on a float-like platform heavily adorned with patterns. Influenced by Jamaican dancehall culture and images of violence on social media, Patterson investigates the dynamics of control over one’s environment and body within a postcolonial context.
The work describes negotiations made by marginalized young men in their desire to absorb Western Pop culture and traditional gender codes of masculinity, while at the same time embodying a theatricality of assemblage that is stubbornly resistant to cultural whitewashing. There is a sense of strength but also extreme fragility in the pairing of these figures with the more ominous outlines that peek through the debris. As viewers, we are extremely aware of that terrifying moment where celebrations of identity can so easily turn to violence.

―Maggie Jensen