Bipolar, 2023
Information about the artwork
- MaterialOil, acrylic, charcoal, chalk, ballpoint pen, colored pencil, newspaper, ink, sticky notes, pins, vinyl tape, and plastic lemons on wood
- Dimensions167 x 244.5 x 12.7 cm
- Year of acquisition2024
- Inventory numberUAB 1345
- On viewOn view
- Copyright© Pope.L, Courtesy der Künstler und Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York
More about the artwork
In many of his works, the American artist Pope.L explored the absurdities of language, particularly when used as a means of categorizing and assigning skin color and race. This includes the “Skin Sets” and “Proto-Skin Sets,” in which he combined written and gestural traces with found materials such as newspapers, advertisements, or other objects. The two-part work “Bipolar,” connected only by red tape, is part of this project. “The left and right hands do not necessarily know what each is doing,” Pope.L explained about the piece, which was created as one of his last works before his death that same year. The inscription "RAYMOND TOP OF ME” could refer to various people with the name Raymond: the artists Saunders or Jonson, the writer Roussel, or the musician “Sting Ray” Davis—all important figures in Black culture across art, literature, and music at different times. The addition of “top of me” connects these references to questions of positioning and hierarchy. Pope.L stated: “I use shifting levels of legibility of language to trouble the process of reading... Legibility can be articulated via physical, poetic or conceptual means.”
