David-Jeremiah — CulturalDC

VACANT SPACE ACTIVATION

***David-Jeremiah’s FOGA: Real N*gga Edition***

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL PRESS RELEASE

JOIN THE LATEST CRAZE IN YOGA

FOGA: Real-Nigga Edition is a 30 day, complete “release” yoga program set in the future of an alternatively calibrated ideal, heralding a time where the therapeutically, maturely and real-muhfuckin-niggaedly processing of all desires to harm cops is accepted, respected, promoted, and even celebrated. Enter the FOGA universe and unlock access to the full program and exclusive content.

ENTER THE FOGA UNIVERSE

ADVANCE NOTE: CulturalDC strongly supports the right of David-Jeremiah, a Black artist, to present his work in a manner authentic to his creative vision. We also deeply condemn the use of the “N-word” by anyone not of Black heritage, including in quote repetition. In amplifying his latest project to an inherently diverse audience, we use the written stylization “ngga” and the spoken stylization “N-word,” though please note that the artist intends the artwork title to be stylized in an uncensored manner.* David-Jeremiah remarked, on the topic of his titling decision: “Ngga is my culture. It’s how I’ve always communicated myself. And it’s lame as fuck that that has to be explained.”*

July 16 - August 28, 2022

Location: 1831 14th St NW

Opening Reception: Saturday July, 2022 6-8pm

Gallery Hours:

Wednesday + Thursday 12-5pm
Friday+ Saturday 12-6pm
Sunday 12-5pm

CulturalDC presents David-Jeremiah’s FOGA: Real N*gga Edition, —an immersive art installation inspired by a prison day room, FOGA (“Felon Yoga”): Real N*gga Edition is a virtually accessible conceptual artwork of guided exercise class videos.

Taking place within a cross-disciplinary universe of the “FOGA”-branded wellness franchise, in-canon literature describes FOGA as “a therapeutic wellness program centered on healthily and mindfully channeling your desire to kill cops into imaginary acts of violence by way of yoga-inspired movements.” Utilized in the videos, and available for purchase, is art-object ‘exercise equipment’ branded with the FOGA logo (a peace sign made of shell casings), such as cinderblocks in place of yoga blocks; guns in place of free weights; and limited-edition merch with which an in-canon infomercial encourages you to “tone up your athleisure wardrobe”

At the center of FOGA: Real N*gga Edition, the fictional lead character— newly released felon with an entrepreneurial drive, who is sincere about his intentions to positively impact society—creates a guided yoga and meditation class program that appropriates the structure of the mid-2010s branded exercise class trend that was popular during his incarceration. A non-exhaustive list of themes explored in FOGA: Real N*gga Edition includes empathy, radical nonviolence, redemption, Black male mental health, and expectations and manifestations of Black masculinity.

The project consists of three components: an intricate art installation modeled to-scale after an authentic prison day room but with small, thoughtful “Easter eggs” throughout; a performance art video content series of guided yoga and meditation sessions (and a “mid-2000s blog aesthetic” graphic website to access the videos), which are enactments of formal screenplays (rather than improv) performed within a similar day room installation by a cast of three recurring characters who often wear ski masks to conceal their identities; and a series of sculptures: the FOGA-branded ‘exercise equipment’ art objects that appear in the videos, each a handmade-variant edition of five.

“A lot of people try to classify my art as angry, violent, shock art, shit like that,” said David-Jeremiah. To the contrary, contends Darryl Ratcliff, a Dallas-based community organizer and artist, in an essay: FOGA is actually the ultimate embodiment and ideal of radical nonviolence. “The brilliance of FOGA is that the character performed by David-Jeremiah is at once absurd, menacing, and profound. The work directly acknowledges the fact that many people of color have strong negative feelings towards police officers because of hundreds of years of police brutality and harassment. However, instead of ignoring these feelings, David-Jeremiah creates constructs to express and process through them. As jarring and violent as his artwork sometimes appears, the violence is only metaphorical or perhaps even meditative. In fact, by ultimately choosing dialogue over actual violence, Jeremiah pursues the path of radical nonviolence.”

In the universe of the conceptual artwork, shortly after its launch, FOGA becomes a nationwide hit, leading to other themed editions (beyond Real N*gga Edition) as well as ubiquitous FOGA ‘equipment’ in gyms and homes across the country.

FOGA: Real N*gga Edition furthers David-Jeremiah’s exploration of a conceptual art focus that he refers to as “inverted-performance,” wherein the ultimate realization of the piece is for viewers to fully participate in the exercise classes in their own homes. Beyond just participatory artwork, in the inverted-performance construct, the viewer’s perceptions and biases are fundamental (rather than incidental) to the artwork’s intended meaning. To that end, David-Jeremiah asserts that FOGA: Real N*gga Edition is not at all provocative or shocking to many of his peers or in relation to his own life or experiences; that if any particular viewer were to find it so, it would be due to the differences between their lived experiences and those of the artist. He also emphasizes the importance of the viewer’s lingering and evolving takeaway from the social aspects of the piece.