Research Type
CuratorNotes
Born in 1960 in New York City, Nayland Blake has been an artist, educator, activist, and writer since the late 1980s. Earning his BFA from Bard College in 1982 and his MFA from the California Institute of Arts in 1984, Blake has worked across various mediums including sculpture, photography, painting, video, and performance. Direct forms of interaction through performance and collaboration as well as use of everyday objects are central to his art practice. As a queer and biracial artist, Blake explores sexuality and race issues - both personally and socially - through his work.
In Untitled (1992) a natural sponge and piece of soap pierced by a metal pin perches atop a small metal shelf. A metal wire runs through the side of the shelf holding on one end a dangling piece of soap and on the other a sponge resting on the ground. While the objects have inherent meaning and associations, the title leaves the work open to interpretation. As Blake explained in a 2008 BOMB Magazine interview with Rachel Harrison, “My engagement with the object is about a quality of attention and a way to reveal my inner life to myself by externalizing it, by making it physical, or enacting it in some way.”