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Bradford Young: REkOGNIZE

Scaife Galleries June 17, 2017–Mar. 31, 2018
Bradford Young Rekognize exhibition
Installation view of Bradford Young, REkOGNIZE, 2017, Carnegie Museum of Art; Photo: Bryan Conley

REkOGNIZE is a three-channel video installation and a meditation on photography, memory, and movement. Artist and Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Bradford Young (Selma, Arrival) finds inspiration in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood, a site of the early 20th-century Great Migration. During this period, millions of African Americans moved from the rural southern United States to cities in the north and west. The Hill District saw a flourishing of culture during these years and was a site of artistic development for luminaries such as August Wilson, Charles “Teenie” Harris, Errol Garner, and many others. REkOGNIZE takes its visual cues from the Pittsburgh landscape, especially the city’s tunnels, which serve not only as literal entry points into the city, but also as metaphors for this movement of people and culture.

The work features Young’s footage of the Hill District, shots of Pittsburgh’s tunnels, and a translation of several Teenie Harris photographs into matrices of metadata. This digital code is also the basis for the work’s musical score by jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran. For REkOGNIZE, Moran picks up on the patterns and visual rhythms found within the code, creating music that enters into conversation with Young’s imagery. Young and Moran’s interdisciplinary approach to Harris’s images asks us to reflect on the power of photographs from the past to inspire work today. In doing so, they blur the boundaries between still and moving image, analog and digital, and visual and auditory experiences.

Cinematographer Bradford Young discusses his love for still photography

About the artist

Artist and cinematographer Bradford Young (b. 1977) was nominated for an Academy Award in 2016 (Arrival) and is currently filming the untitled Han Solo film. His short films include his 2016 collaboration with Common, Black America Again. Young’s two-channel video installation Untitled (Structures), 2012, produced with artist Leslie Hewitt, was commissioned by the Menil Collection with support from MCA Chicago and the Des Moines Art Center.

REkOGNIZE is commissioned by the Hillman Photography Initiative at Carnegie Museum of Art.

Exhibition Images

People embracing with buildings and several bystanders in background. The bystanders look concerned and upset.
Charles "Teenie" Harris, Family members of murder victim George Howard embracing outside of his apartment, 708 Junilla Street, Hill District, November 1951, Heinz Family Fund
A police officer and a woman in a long skirt standing in a grassy area on top of a hill, looking over the edge of the hill
Charles "Teenie" Harris, Crestas Terrace police officer D. A. Cook, and Dorothy Anderson, standing on hillside crime scene of murder of Raymond Jones, Crestas Terrace, May 1949, Heinz Family Fund
Charles Teenie Harris, Group portrait of wedding party, posed in yard possibly on Chalfont Street, July 25, 1942, Heinz Family Fund
Charles "Teenie" Harris, Group portrait of wedding party, posed in yard possibly on Chalfont Street, July 25, 1942, Heinz Family Fund
Busy city street, with large crowd gathered around a hearse
Charles "Teenie" Harris, Men and women standing around parked hearse, for funeral of murder victim Genevieve "Ginger" Stewart, at Henry A. Myers funeral home, 6542 Frankstown Avenue, East Liberty, May, 1939, Heinz Family Fund
Ballroom, with women in billowing gowns dancing with men in suits
Charles "Teenie" Harris, Wilbur H. Sullivan, dancing waltz with daughters Herschelle Sandra Sullivan and Paula Kathleen Sullivan in Syria Mosque for Alpha Kappa Alpha's 1954 Cotillion, February 1954, black and white: Kodak Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Portrait of a woman in a long wedding dress, which falls to the ground and fans out around her. She is holding a bouquet of flowers.
Charles "Teenie" Harris, Portrait of bride Adah Moore Lavelle, wearing gown with faintly striped yoke, small buttons on front, and long sleeves with puffed shoulders, posed holding bouquet in yard possibly on Chalfont, Street, at night, July 25, 1942, black and white: Agfa Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Men sitting at a long table, facing camera. They are wearing suits, and the man in the center is speaking into a microphone.
Charles "Teenie" Harris, Men at press conference, from left: Ewari "Ed" Ellis, Roland Hayes, Sala Udin Saif Salaam (Sam Howze), Jitu Weusi, and Rev. Rosamund Kay, with Tim Stevens and Father August "Gus" Taylor seated in back, during African Liberation Week, May - June 1973, black and white: Kodak Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Night scene, with smokestacks of a factory in the background blasting out light and smoke. In the foreground on a building at left, a large wall mural shows a whiskey advertisement. It reads "John Henry Brand. The perfect blend."
Charles "Teenie" Harris, Night scene with steel mill and John Henry Whiskey advertisement, c. 1938-1945, black and white: Agfa Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Male entertainer wearing a suit and hat, dancing with fingers pointed to floor, beside, microphone, in club with jazz, musician caricatures on bandstand
Charles Teenie Harris, Male entertainer dancing in club with jazz musician caricatures on bandstand, ca. 1940-1945, black and white: Agfa safety film, Carnegie Museum of Art, Heinz Family Fund
Female dancer in two piece costume bending over backwards on stage with jazz musician caricatures decoration
Charles "Teenie" Harris, Female dancer in two piece costume bending over backwards on stage with jazz musician caricatures decoration, c. 1940-1945, black and white: Agfa Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Crowd of children, all facing the camera, wearing costumes, including pirates, masked heroes, and monsters
Charles "Teenie" Harris, Children wearing Halloween costumes at Bedford Dwellings, October 31, 1941, black and white: Agfa Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund

Support

Support for the Hillman Photography Initiative is provided by the William T. Hillman Foundation and the Henry L. Hillman Foundation.