Both ‘blue jeans’ and ‘the blues’ are listed as materials in Vanessa German’s towering sculpture ‘Sad Rapper,’ the title piece of her current solo show at Chelsea’s Kasmin Gallery. Not only a visual artist but a poet and performer, German creates descriptions of her assembled sculptures that double as poetic reflections on the thought processes behind the work. Dressed in blue and standing on a platform of red and white stripes, this figure represents a less easily recognized ‘American’ character, one covered in prayer bundles but laden with society’s expectations. (On view through Oct 22nd).
Vanessa German, Sad Rapper, wood, tar, 75 pounds of old blue jeans, the blues, sorrow, cuz in 1983 rappers could be bad but could not be sad— or gay, holiness, salt, a groan, tears, African blue and white cloth, love, meanness, the way that it feels to need to cry but not be able to cry— for an exceptionally long time, convinced of muscle instead of tenderness, grief, yarn, twine, loneliness, old blue bed sheets, heartbreak and lying about it, canvas, prayer beads, shame, black pigment, delusion, love, love, love, you gonna be ok ni$$a, you ain’t alone homie, it’s ok, just go’on ahead and be broken for a little while, shit~ life is hard sometimes, red and white paint, foam, ptsd, glue, plaster, heat, 78 x 48 x 40 inches, 2022.
