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“The practice of writing and art saved me. They are the only spaces where I can stretch into fullness, where the blunt edges, the gooey centers, the trap doors and hidden rooms of myself can properly be aired out and exposed. Writing and art are where the nuance of how it feels to be human can be considered with the care it deserves.” —Krista Franklin, “From the Mundane to the Marvelous” (2020) Krista Franklin (American, b. 1970) uses a vast range of materials and references situated at the intersection of poetry, popular culture, and the dynamic histories of the African Diaspora. Franklin appropriates text and images from vintage magazine articles and other printed matter that she collects. The very act of collaging—cutting, pasting, and juxtaposing—puts Franklin’s works in direct conversation with the materials of other writers, photographers, and intellectuals. Transporting her in time, collage offers a means to critically examine the material and visual culture of a certain period—it questions and expands its horizons. Often referring to the performance of a single musician, the exhibition’s title, Solo(s), is instead a nod to the artist’s commitment to collaboration with fellow artists, writers, and musicians, particularly during a moment of collective ideological and technological change and its uncertainties.
“La práctica de la escritura y el arte me salvaron. Son los únicos espacios donde puedo extenderme hasta la plenitud, donde los bordes obtusos, los centros viscosos, las escotillas y los cuartos ocultos que hay en mí pueden ventilarse y exponerse correctamente. La escritura y el arte están donde el matiz de cómo se siente ser humano puede tomarse en cuenta con la preocupación que se merece.”—Krista Franklin, “De lo Mundano a lo Maravilloso” (2020) Krista Franklin (Estadounidense, n. 1971) usa un vasto rango de materiales y referencias situadas en la intersección de la poesía, la cultura popular y las historias dinámicas de la diáspora africana. Franklin se apropia de textos e imágenes de artículos de revistas viejas y otros materiales impresos que colecciona. El acto mismo del collage—cortar, pegar y yuxtaponer— pone las obras de Franklin en directa conversación con el material de otros artistas, fotógrafos e intelectuales. Transportándola en el tiempo, el collage ofrece un medio para examinar críticamente la cultura visual y material de un periodo determinado—cuestiona y expande sus horizontes. A menudo referenciando la actuación de un músico solista, el título de la exposición, Solo(s), es más bien una alusión al compromiso de la artista por colaborar con sus colegas artistas, escritores y músicos, particularmente durante un momento de cambio ideológico y tecnológico y sus incertidumbres.
“I wanted to make art that was cool enough to be on album covers." —Krista Franklin
On display are ten works by Krista Franklin that have appeared on books and album covers, which visitors can find in Library of Love. The books range from poetry collections, literary journals, and fiction. Franklin's process originates with reading an excerpt of the manuscript and forming the artwork in response, her images often generated from major themes. Poet Tyehimba Jess first commissioned Franklin to create the collage which appears on the cover of his book leadbelly (2005) about the legendary blues musician of the title. This invitation set Franklin on a path of making original work for the covers of books and albums over the next decade. All of these works are on loan from the homes of artists, writers, and scholars who have supported her practice over the years. Maintaining the original frames, these pieces bring each collector's personal aesthetic, and a glimpse into their domestic space, to the museum.
Library of Love centers on affection and nostalgia for libraries and their significance in Krista Franklin's development as an interdisciplinary artist. The first installment of Library of Love in 2014 coincided with the international traction of the term “Chiraq." As Chicago was becoming synonymous with unchecked and indiscriminate violence, the installation was a refusal of that perception, and a “visual love letter" to the city. Re-staged eight years later, Library of Love exists within a new context. Franklin writes: “As the pandemic rages on in its terrible adaptations, as America negotiates her love of firearms over the sanctity of human life, as legislators lean into the idea of women, femmes, and children as property and collateral damage of the patriarchy and the state, as the borders of police states become ever more entrenched and brutal, and books that refuse Western narratives remain a threat worthy of suppression and banning, we are hungry for spaces to feel whole and loved, where we can reconnect with ourselves and each other."
The materiality of music culture is integral to Krista Franklin's oeuvre and one of her most significant influences. Music runs through her visual, written, and performance works, such as appropriating album titles and song lyrics to title her own visual projects and references in her writing. Franklin deconstructs the covers of albums sourced from second-hand shops and donations from the collections of Chicago DJs Jamal “Jaytoo" Jefferies and Sean Owens. She also records projects with musicians such as Helen Money and Ben LaMar Gay. The vinyl collections of her father and uncle made a significant impression on her imagination, and she credits musicians and songwriters as influential in her own writing. Topographies of Groove, for instance, is part of the ongoing series Heavy Rotation, referring to an album or song that one plays repetitiously.
In 2006 Krista Franklin made SEED: (The Book of Eve), inspired by the novels of science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. A series of two-page collage responses to each of Butler's published novels, SEED was the first of many works devoted to Butler's writings. She was invited by adrienne maree brown and chelsea cleveland, alongside artists Crystal Clarity, Damon Davis, Soraya Jean-Louis, John Jennings, and Paul Lewin, to create images for The Octavia E. Butler Tarot Deck. cleveland, brown, Alta Starr, and Lottie Spady are the writers of the project, providing the interpretations and frameworks. Franklin created the art for the Major Arcana of the deck, and served as the artistic coordinator for the artists throughout the process.
“I am the queen of sleight of hand wandering the forest of motives,armed with horoscopes, cosmic encounters & an X-Acto knife." —Krista Franklin, “Manifesto, or Ars Poetica #2" (2012)
Krista Franklin describes “...to take root among the stars." as an unbound book. The title is borrowed from a sentence in Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower (1993): “The Destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars." Butler's book is a post-apocalyptic novel about climate change and economic crises leading to social chaos in America in the early 2020s. “...to take root among the stars." is a visual map that attempts to trace the 20th century fascination with Black Futurism and Surrealism, a way to engage outer space, mystical, and metaphysical thought through the prism of Black cultural production and printed matter. Materials include: vintage Ebony magazine articles that reference space of all forms; astral travel; Black spiritualism; African indiginous religions; véve and other spiritual and alchemical symbols; specimens from the natural world; song lyrics; and excerpts from the novel The Famished Road by Ben Okri, Muntu: African Culture and the Western World by Jahnheinz Jahn, and more.
Krista Franklin and Gloria “Gloe" Talamantes have collaborated on multiple occasions since meeting in 2005 at the Minneapolis hip-hop convening B-Girl Be, which centered the contributions of women in hip-hop culture. Lift Off's use of brown is a nod to Talamantes's Brown Walls Project. This color proliferated on the walls of institutional buildings in her community on the West Side of Chicago and other communities of color, such as the Department of Family & Support Services and John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County.
A focal point of Lift Off is a photograph by Talamantes, made after one of the many protests following the murder of George Floyd, of a little girl on a horse with her fist in the air, a sign of her sovereignty and confidence. The young girl leaping off cassette tapes signals hip-hop's “Golden Age" when the consciousness of the music elevated the consciousness of the people. Franklin and Talamantes both teach and advocate for well-being and creative freedom and encourage the young to “lift off on their dreams."
Constructed of handmade paper formed from pulped album covers and recycled paper, this series was designed to resemble the texture of deteriorating wheatpaste concert posters on city streets. Ripped, tagged, and painted over walls stenciled with “POST NO BILLS," and concert posters are frequently seen along city landscapes. Krista Franklin's deep love for street culture, graffiti, street art, and the materiality of music culture informs the construction and installation of the individual pieces that compose Post No Bills. Colorful fragments of printed matter appear and disappear along the muted surface of the work. This series also marks a departure from the traditional rectangular shape of paper, favoring more organic and sculptural forms that handmade paper can take.
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Installation photography by Dabin Ahn.
