Kambui Olujimi: Zulu Time exhibition catalog

Absent physical bodies, Olujimi’s modified cuffs could be
mistaken for jewelry on display, commodities for purchase. Formally,
the lyrical line work of the draping jewelry recall labyrinthine networks
of commercial trade routes, a possible allusion to the commodification
of human life during America’s 250-year history of slavery. A visual
reminder of the global economy of the slave trade, Killing Time can be
read as a metaphorical map of stolen time and lost lives. These works
also gesture toward a much more contemporary capitalistic endeavor:
the economics of our criminal justice system. In the astute words of
scholar and activist Angela Davis, prisons perform a “feat of magic”
by tricking people into thinking that disappearing vast numbers of
human beings is the same thing as disappearing the social problems
that result from ingrained racism and the cycle of poverty. This act of
rendering people invisible by placing them effectively out of sight is
highly profitable for private industries providing goods and services to
those behind bars. 9 But as glittering reminders a system that enriches
some through the forced imprisonment of others, the works in Killing
Time suggest that our present approach to crime and punishment has
effectively re-commodified human life.
Perhaps, then, it is appropriate to conclude this essay with
discussion of Olujimi’s installation titled T-Minus Ø, a dignified arrangement
of thirteen flags, each displaying violent explosions of failed
rocket launches. Whether or not Olujimi’s objective was to circle back to
the legacies of Western colonialism by alluding to the original thirteen
British colonies in North America, the flags nevertheless vibrate with
nationalist intention. In the United States, we make public affirmations
of loyalty to our flag, which we see as a symbol of our country, our history,
and our pride in both. But if a flag represents such an idea, or even
an ideal, what exactly are we are being asked to salute? The veiled legacy
of a dehumanizing economy? Olujimi’s flags, with their grand imagery
of collapse, point to the failures in our nationalist agenda, both past and
present, visible and invisible. With T-Minus Ø, Olujimi suggests that we
are, indeed, out of time; that we have entered a moment in time when we
must face those failures, acknowledge the subtleties of institutionalized
biases, and make visible those bodies that are being kept out of sight
through underhanded strategies of subjugation.
8. Garrick L. Percival cites numerous studies
showing Blacks are 6 to 8 times more likely
to be incarcerated relative to whites, and
Hispanics are 3 ½ times more likely to be
incarcerated than whites. Garrick L. Percival,
“Ideology, Diversity, and Imprisonment:
Considering the Influence of Local Politics
on Racial and Ethnic Minority Incarceration
Rates,” Social Science Quarterly 91, no.4
(2010): 1064-1082. See, also, Leah Sakala,
“Breaking Down Mass Incarceration rates in
the 2010 Census,” https://www.prisonpolicy.
org/reports/rates.html.
9. Angela Davis, “Masked Racism: Reflections
on the Prison Industrial Complex,” in Race,
Class, and Gender in the United States (7th
edition), ed. Paula S. Rothenberg (New York:
Worth Publishers, Inc., 2007), 683-87.
16, 21:
Ville Radieuse, habiteà-machine
(The Radiant
City, the living machine)
(installation detail)
22–23:
The Black That Birthed Us
(installation detail)
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