“Dancing in the Dark” at ArtCenter: Strother’s Provocative Fusion of Race and Representation

“Dancing in the Dark” at ArtCenter (Photo – Garrett Rowlan)

Seeing Dancing in the Dark by Devin Troy Strother is like catching a dazzling fragment of the Black experience—one that both confounds and engages.

By Garrett Rowlan

Upon entering ArtCenter’s South Campus exhibition site, visitors first encounter a kiosk filled with racks of real Hollywood screenplays, though these come with Strother’s own customized covers. They bring to mind that dying institution, the local magazine rack, but in the Dancing in the Dark context a process is indicated, that of the word into the image.

Or so it is suggested as the viewer goes past an elevated stage, suggestive of a boxing ring or witness interrogation room and covered with walls of transparent sheeting. In the middle is a single chair, suggestive of a barbershop but with a headrest or restraint that hints of a chair’s more sinister employment.

Beyond the stage are three screens, two filled with some variety of psychodrama. One, titled Paint in 3 Acts, shows a white canvas soon filled with color in a swirl reminiscent of Jackson Pollack, and in the middle of which a Black man in skivvies writhes in a speeded-up projection, like in the agony or protest of existence.

Nearby, on a central screen, the same man both plummets himself with and eats a watermelon. Whether this is metaphor or commentary is hard to say.

On the right screen a Black woman, apparently a witch of sorts, reflects on the stereotypical attitudes toward black magic, Barack Obama, and the weariness of representation or ingrained attitudes of which she is “so over it.” Wearily, she smokes a spliff  while nearby sits a satyr of sorts, a nightmarish figure in a black, pod-like mask.

Dancing in the Dark fills the ArtCenter gallery with a multitude of references and images, the meanings of which remain elusive. Yet, the eye is never bored and that’s for sure.

The exhibition is on display at both ArtCenter locations until July 26.

“Dancing in the Dark” by Devin Troy Strother (Photo – Garrett Rowlan)

“Dancing in the Dark” by Devin Troy Strother at the ArtCenter (Photo – Garrett Rowlan)