MAY 16, 2024 KATE MOTHES
“Inner Elder (Nina Simone as Queen of Sheba)” (2023), ceramic, 39 3/8 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches. Photo by Jonti Wilde. All images © Tavares Strachan, courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery
In his recent exhibition, Tavares Strachan positioned ‘The Encyclopedia of Invisibility’ like a nucleus around which all other installations revolved.
In 1887, an African-American man named Matthew Henson was hired by U.S. Navy engineer Robert Peary to accompany a team of explorers to be the first to navigate to the Geographic North Pole. On April 6, 1909, after several failed attempts, Henson was the first to arrive with the help of Inuit guides, but Peary—whose records were later interrogated and found to contain discrepancies—was credited with the achievement for a century.
Left: “Makeda (A Map of the Crown)” (2024), marble, flocked hair, 19 3/8 x 16 1/2 x 12 3/4 inches. Photo by Elon Schoenholz. Right: “Inner Elder (Biko as Septimius Severus)” (2023), ceramic, 39 3/8 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches. Photo by Jonti Wilde
And then there’s Andrea Motley Crabtree, the U.S. Army’s first female deep-sea diver and the first African-American female deep-sea diver in any branch of the country’s military service. While lauded as a trailblazer, she recounts a 21-year career marred by prejudice and considerable racist and misogynist hazing.
Installation view. Left: “Matthew Henson (Hunter’s Shirt Stacked with Football and Spear)” (2023), ceramic, 78 3/4 x 35 3/8 x 15 3/4 inches. Right: “Andrea Crabtree (Potter’s Shirt Stacked with Diver’s Helmet)” (2023), ceramic, 70 7/8 x 35 3/8 x 15 3/4 inches. Photo by Elon Schoenholz
Figures like Henson and Crabtree appear often in Tavares Strachan’s multimedia installations and sculptures (previously). His ongoing series The Encyclopedia of Invisibility first came to fruition in 2018 as a 2,400-page book, containing 15,000 entries on subjects omitted from the Encyclopedia Britannica—an authority on history.
In his recent large-scale, immersive exhibition Magnificent Darkness with Marian Goodman Gallery in Los Angeles, Strachan positioned The Encyclopedia of Invisibility like a nucleus around which all other installations revolved. He even included a “pocket” edition of the book on a bespoke acrylic stand that doubled as a container for a pair of white gloves.
In one installation, “Matthew Henson (Hunter’s Shirt Stacked with Football and Spear)” stands adjacent to “Andrea Crabtree (Potter’s Shirt Stacked with Diver’s Helmet),” both homages to their respective subjects, situated like timeless totems in a desert-like expanse. In another arrangement, busts of legendary African queens like Amanirenas, Moremi Ajasoro, and Makeda—the Ethiopian name for the Queen of Sheba—are carved from marble. Adorning the works with real, flocked hair, Strachan venerates both ancient historical figures and Black hair itself. […]
Installation view of Tavares Strachan, ‘Magnificent Darkness,’ at Marian Goodman Gallery, Los Angeles, 2024. Photo by Elon Schoenholz
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