| Artist: | Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (Kids of Survival) |
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|---|---|---|
| Title: | photo of K.O.S. at work on Amerika | |
| Date: | 1986 | |
| Nationality: | American | |
| Context: | Postmodern Pluralism | |
| Movement: | Community Art, Collaboration | |
| Materials: | paint on book pages | |
| Subject: K.O.S. (Kids of Survival) at work on "Amerika." These kids--Hispanic and African-American-- from the mean streets of the South Bronx were kids that the NY public school system had given up on; many had severe learning disabilities, either dyslexic or considered emotionally and academically "at risk." In collaboration with Tim Rollins, their teacher, they learned a new way to read--they drew out their response to the book directly onto the pages of the text. Called "jamming," they would brainstorm as a group and then transfer their imagery by means of a grid to a group canvas, mural size, which was covered with pages of the text as the "ground" for their figures; they thus found a way to inhabit these texts through their own voices, taking over language for themselves Style: collaboration focused on working out the relationship of image to text. Source materials range from reproductions of masterpiece art to popular culture comic books, science journals, and newspaper events; the Kafka text they read out loud together, drawing their responses. "Jamming" sessions lead to collective group decision making; they paint right onto the pages of the text. They have sold one of the "Amerikas" for $35,000; proceeds go back to fund the non-profit after school program Rollins started up; some of the kids who have graduated have come back to the school to teach. The imagery is a cross between the representational and the abstract, the organic and the geometric, the irrational and the logical. Context: collaboration rather than the existential hero alone in the void; this work is about addressing wasted resources and social problems, and about providing kids with an opportunity to develop a voice and a vision through art education, which for them became a method of survival in a rough, urban world rather than a superfluous frill or luxury subject (it was a dead end for most of these kids until K.O.S.; one member was robbed and killed in the streets; not all made it, but several today have now gone on to art school, and these were kids no one ever expected to graduate high school); art that is more reconstructive than deconstructive; "We make art in the future tense." | ||
