Jefferson Pinder

December 29, 2020 through January 23, 2021

Jefferson Pinder has produced performance-based and multidisciplinary work for over a decade. Pinder’s work provokes commentary about race and struggle. Primarily using performance, video, neon, and found objects, he investigates identity through the most dynamic circumstances and materials. From uncanny video portraits associated with popular music to durational work that puts the black body in motion, his work examines physical conditioning that reveals an emotional response. Pinder currently serves as a Professor of Sculpture and the Director of Academic Affairs for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He received a BA in Theatre and MFA in Mixed Media from the University of Maryland and studied at the Asolo Theatre Conservatory in Sarasota, FL.

Statement:
Appropriating the image of HAL from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Pinder is playfully evoking the omnipresent ambiguous Artificial Intelligence that stalked humans through the depths of space. Installation-minded, the work overlooks the busy iconic Woodward Avenue with its big eye that has found its way to Midtown.

http://www.jeffersonpinder.com