Shikeith

Imagining flesh through shadows
October 1 – 30, 2019

Imagining Flesh Through Shadows is a solo presentation of the work of American artist Shikeith, a multimedia artist and educator currently based in Pittsburgh. Heavily rooted in concepts of black manhood, queerness, mysticism and spirituality; Shikeith’s work examines how queer black men negotiate masculinity and the world around them. The exhibition displays the wide and diverse swath of approaches that comprise Shikeith’s studio practice, including installation-based media, film, sculpture and photography. The exhibition features multiple new photographic and sculptural works, which were all created during Shikieth's multiple visits to Jacksonville. 

Over the course of a year Shikeith spent nearly four months on the ground in Jacksonville, Florida, creating new works, researching the region and fostering long lasting relationships with many of the city’s community members. Shikeith worked to ingrain himself within the community as his practices extended beyond the walls of his studio, by shooting film and photography sessions in various locations, hiring local persons as models, and sourcing materials from neighborhood pockets. Such outings and field research brought him to Kingsley Plantation and the LaVilla neighborhood, where he collected not only images but also materials and research for forthcoming pieces still in the works. These specific locations inspired the creation of the work Round Midnight, 2019, a sculpture comprised of a traditional tabby concrete and a glass trumpet, which was created at the Jacksonville University Glass Studio with Master Glass artist and Professor of Glass Brian Frus. Shikeith combined the rich history held within the two geographically specific Jacksonville locations, and paralleled the histories held within the spaces in order to create a unifying single sculpture which threads the past, present and future of African American identity. 

Shikeith states “I have a hard time articulating the feelings I experienced stepping onto the ghostly ruins of The Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville, Florida for the first time—last December. Encountering the slowly deteriorating oyster shell tabby cabins of my enslaved ancestors —which remain still standing decades later—transformed my investigations of black interior space —both architectural and psychological. “Round Midnight”, with its tabby covered exterior and blue velvet insides considers what emerged from captivity. How black expressions such as the musical tradition of the blues (the trumpet) came about through a malleable consciousness (the glass) resistant of the borders enacted on black bodies. Both alluring and violent—in my experience, the Kingsley Plantation is dripping with a symbolic moisture that pervasively marked its territory over me.”