![\"Yulan](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/database_small1.png\")
<\/a>A: That makes me ill.<\/p>\n
Y: It\u2019s fucking crazy. There was this one case in Alabama where this guy who was mentally ill, and a lot of the time these people are, and he was going to the police department to pay a fine for something, and he got upset and something set him off but he didn\u2019t attack anyone. But the police tasered him, and hogtied him to the back of the car, and tasered him to death. And nothing happened to these people. Then you have something like Ramarley Graham which happened in the Bronx where there is actual CCTV footage of the cops breaking into his grandmother\u2019s house and killing him in his own bathroom. And those cops were acquitted a few months ago. They had paid leave to even add to that bullshit. Its very disheartening, it\u2019s a depressing project to pick up.<\/p>\n
A: I can imagine why you would need a break from that.<\/p>\n
Y: Yes its very depressing.<\/p>\n
A: Yeah that sounds like it could take a huge toll on you.<\/p>\n
Y: Oh my god. Yeah but, it\u2019s really interesting to see the community outreach just saying, these are the stories I know of personally.<\/p>\n
A:\u00a0 So it\u2019s clearly a politically motivated information vehicle. But the video you created is very artful and powerful. Do you see \u201cDatabase\u201d as an art piece or as purely a vehicle for information, or is it both?<\/p>\n
Y: I think it is both. I mean, it\u2019s problematic of me to say it\u2019s both actually, but it is. It being an art piece could make it exploitative because I\u2019m making art about these people\u2019s suffering, but at the same time I\u2019m trying to chronicle it. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m servicing the community, that I\u2019m the best thing that ever happened to them. It\u2019s exploitative because it\u2019s dredging up very hurtful things and all these families are still suffering and\u00a0will continue to suffer. But by making the video in conjunction with \u201cDatabase,\u201d I felt like it made it a bit more powerful because I could employ sound and image. The whole thing is based in Google maps so I knew I would use Google Maps in the video. I just wanted to the video to show how someone could interact with the piece. And then for the video I chose two people and it was Ramarley Graham who is from the Bronx, so in the piece you see the street view of his hometown and it chronicled his walk home from school, and it ends at his house, and the overlay of the CCTV footage of the cops breaking into his home, and then you hear audio of the mother of Kimani Gray from that protest in Flatbush, which was crazy because that protest showed people really taking it the streets, which was awesome. And in the video it\u2019s his mother, and I remember I was at this protest, and it was crazy because she was just screaming \u201cStop killing our kids!\u201d<\/p>\n
A: Yeah I remember that from the video.<\/p>\n
Y: That shit got me, it was so insane. She\u2019s Jamaican, and the entire neighborhood is just poor Caribbean people, whether its Afro-Caribbean or Latin-Caribbean, and I really identify with that way too much, and the hurt in her voice was insane. Right off the bat, when everyone was peacefully organizing, the media started calling it \u201criots\u201d like \u201cOh the Brooklyn Riots are happening.\u201d And I\u2019m like, this is not a riot, 10 black people are assembling that is NOT a riot. When there is a riot you\u2019ll KNOW there is a fucking riot believe me, cause you\u2019ll see my ass there.<\/p>\n
A: (laughing)<\/p>\n
Y: When there\u2019s a riot you\u2019ll SEE ME, people are just hanging out right now trust me. It was really crazy. And you know with Trayvon, it\u2019s just the most well known case right now. And in the video there\u2019s the walk through the gated community where he was killed. And then protest footage from people that gathered in Union Square when the trial was taking place.<\/p>\n
A: I notice that lot of your pieces exist online. Do you find the Internet to be a more democratic way to distribute work and therefore more in line with your artistic message, or is just a matter of convenience?<\/p>\n
Y: Its mostly convenience and it\u2019s an easy way to distribute things. That\u2019s the thing with art, practicing it and studying it, its very classist and elitist. I could have a bomb ass idea I want to execute, which is why I keep notebooks full of ideas, but if I don\u2019t have the resources to do it what happens then? And that\u2019s the case with most things I want to create. By making it exist online, it reaches such a broader community. Even though I do plan on showing \u201cDatabase\u201d in a gallery, its still like\u2026I could show this to 30 people who will see this, but what does that do really, you know? Like it\u2019s nice that they are seeing it and liking it, but these are people that don\u2019t reflect the socio-economic background.<\/p>\n
A: Of the people you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n
Y: Exactly. So it\u2019s nice that you like it, and its great and awesome and you should participate in it because this is the reality for a lot of people. But when you exit this space you\u2019ll probably forget about it. I\u2019m well aware of that, I\u2019m the same way, I have ADD I\u2019m not going to remember some art piece I saw in a gallery. So by it being online, you can get the widest demographic.<\/p>\n
A: Yeah and when its online people who the piece actually reflects can access it.<\/p>\n
Y: Yeah. I\u2019m not anti-gallery in any sense.<\/p>\n
A: What do you feel are the core problems with the gallery setting? Is it too academic?<\/p>\n
Y: It\u2019s academic and the people who I would want to see it, not that I have a core audience, but like my mom is not going to go the Pace Gallery to see it and probably never will. Jay-Z might!<\/p>\n
A: (laughing)<\/p>\n
Y: You know he\u2019s chilling with Marina (Abramovic) and that\u2019s the bomb, that\u2019s cool as shit, but you know my mom isn\u2019t going to be doing shit like that and seeing things \u00a0that reflect her life and her socio-economic background. But you know I\u2019d never be in the Pace Gallery. If it\u2019s a small art space in Bushwick, yeah. Bushwick is still in the process of being gentrified but its still a mostly Hispanic neighborhood. But the art spaces aren\u2019t in those places (where those families live). So the people who are harassed by the police, the ones who are actually living that life, are not going to be seeing the piece if its just in some gallery in Bushwick. Art has this history of being owned by straight white men and that\u2019s still very much the case.<\/p>\n
A: Totally. \u201cDatabase\u201d is bringing awareness, but at the same time, POC are already very aware of this reality.<\/p>\n
Y: Exactly.\u00a0 POC are very aware. The Zimmerman trial was everyone being like \u2013<\/p>\n
A: I wish I were surprised.<\/p>\n
Y: Yeah my mom said to me, \u201cThis is why Johnny should have never died\u201d in reference to Johnny Cochran like yeah that\u2019s true, but this whole trial was like a dull aching pain because we knew what the outcome would be. But shout out to Obama for having that press conference this morning. That was really good.<\/p>\n
A: I didn\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n
Y: Yeah it was really good because he should be discussing this. And you have people on twitter saying like \u201cObama is a racist, we call it the White House for a reason!\u201d And I\u2019m like\u2026you guys are still saying this? It\u2019s not even clever anymore. My favorite \u201cI\u2019m not a racist BUT Obama shouldn\u2019t be talking about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
A: \u201cI\u2019m not a racist, but I\u2019m about to say something really racist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Y: That\u2019s right. Ok, like this is the most personal he\u2019s been in a long time. I\u2019ve been beefing with Obama for the past couple of months so its like, ok you go you should be talking about this.<\/p>\n
A: Yeah its pretty great that he even addressed it at all. It\u2019s not his domain but it should be.<\/p>\n
Y: Yeah like I\u2019m glad they are trying to see if they can retry him (Zimmerman) in federal court. That would be amazing. Is it going to happen? Probably not. But the fact that they\u2019re even acknowledging that its messed up is really important.<\/p>\n
A: At the same time, as your piece shows, there\u2019s so many more incidents.<\/p>\n
Y: So many more. It\u2019s a small drop in a big bucket.<\/p>\n
A: Why do you think this case in particular got so much attention?<\/p>\n
Y: That\u2019s a really good question. People picked up on it quickly and it was well documented and then the whole Florida \u201cstand your ground law.\u201d And also that Zimmerman wasn\u2019t a police officer, he was a wannabe cop. And the NAACP was on it. But most of the cases it\u2019s the police doing these things and we all know the police can do anything they please. And you had Trayvon, a kid in his own neighborhood, he had skittles, he wasn\u2019t some hoodlum even though he had his hoodie up. And then Giraldo Rivera, I\u2019ll never forget he was like \u201cOh he shouldn\u2019t have been wearing his hoodie.\u201d Like Giraldo look at you. You are not in a position to judge ANYBODY. You\u2019re a fool. You can\u2019t do this right now. There\u2019s nothing worse than a wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing. Like him and Clarence Thomas, all of them, I\u2019m done.<\/p>\n
A: Do you think the case got more attention because Zimmerman is Latino?<\/p>\n
Y: Yeah it dual for him because you have his name, and he is Hispanic but is white-passing. It was interesting because they brought his mom on the stand and were like \u201cLOOK! Color can be racist!\u201d<\/p>\n
A: well to shift gears, I really like your \u201cREdact\u201d piece.<\/p>\n Y: Oh cool thank you, I forgot I did that.<\/p>\n A: I really like the idea of incorporating literature into visual art because I\u2019m a big book person. Why did you choose \u201cThe Bluest Eye\u201d for that?<\/p>\n Y: Well first of all I love Toni Morrison. I think she is-<\/p>\n A: A goddess.<\/p>\n Y: Yes a goddess, she\u2019s bomb as hell. She\u2019s beautiful. She\u2019s the black woman I want to be when I\u2019m 65, just spouting wisdom. She\u2019s an idol. I first read \u201cThe Bluest Eye\u201d in high school in my English AP class. I was one of 2 black people in my class and my teacher was pretty racist. That was the first time I was immersed in Toni Morrison not just from a hobby standpoint but an academic one. I mean the story is fucking crazy.<\/p>\n A: Yeah its one of my favorites.<\/p>\n Y: Its so good, and so fucking real. And I think of my grandmother because she has blue eyes. Its just one of those amazing books that confronts race, gender, class, sexuality in such a beautiful way. Her prose is magical. Whatever she writes touches me on so many levels. So \u201cThe Bluest Eye\u201d has always been one of those books for me that just really stood out. You can pick any line from the book and it\u2019s saying something, so that\u2019s why I chose it. I think it came out well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A: Did you use direct excerpts or were you collaging sentences?<\/p>\n Y: I\u2019d pick a sentence, one or two, and then I would black out some of the words, so yes it\u2019s a collage. I remember one of the quotes was some long sentence talking about domestic abuse how this man is beating her, and then she\u2019s falling in love with him, so I tried to take out some of the words so that it shows the never-ending cycle of domestic abuse. I remember the first time I read that book I cried. I needed extra time to read it because I was like, really going through it while I was reading it.<\/p>\n A: I notice a lot of the excerpts you choose are really sexual. Why is that?<\/p>\n Y: I don\u2019t know maybe I was just really horny when I made it.<\/p>\n (Both laughing)<\/p>\n A: That\u2019s fair.<\/p>\n Y: It was finals so I was stressed out and probably just really horny.<\/p>\n A: Where do you think the history of black literature and art fit into your general artistic thought process?<\/p>\n Y: Well books were my first love. I wanted to be a writer when I was younger, but that didn\u2019t work. I realized that I don\u2019t have the patience and the actual love for it to do it. But I was always surrounded by books, I was that weird 3 year old reading the encyclopedia because I didn\u2019t want to go outside. Also, to transition from Jamaica to America where much of Jamaican literature is oral, that\u2019s how we pass things down. Then coming here where it\u2019s a long history of written literature, and using that as a way to further assimilate\u00a0myself into black culture. Because even though I am black, I\u2019m not African American so I\u2019ve always been seen as an outsider of some sort. So literature was my way of coping and learning more about the black experience through a different lens.<\/p>\n A: Cool! So in \u201cApocalypse Medley,\u201d you describe that video as a \u201cmeditation on appropriation and mortality.\u201d Can you explain that for me? Because I watched it and was cracking up\u2026<\/p>\n Y: (laughing)<\/p>\n A: And I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s because I know you, or what.<\/p>\n Y: Yeah that\u2019s funny because people were like \u201cAre you being serious with this?\u201d Well I was thinking about the project for a long time, I sketched it out so I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And also, how do I phrase this. So for 2 years I\u2019ve been working with this director Leilah Weinraub, who is making a film about this black lesbian strip club in LA. So she would do these video pieces for Ghetto Gothic, which is this warehouse party thrown in Brooklyn, so I was being really thrown into that club lifestyle and I would help her with those videos. She said essentially that there\u2019s enough content in the world right now where there\u2019s no real need to create new things. And that\u2019s true, especially with YouTube and even just stock Getty images, there\u2019s so many stock videos of everything. The artist who did The Clock (Christian Marclay), he would go through movies and TV shows and find the passing time on the clock within the footage. So I was like, yeah that\u2019s true, I don\u2019t need to create something new. So it being a mediation on appropriation and mortality\u2026is that what I said?<\/p>\n A: Yeah (laughing)<\/p>\n Y: (laughing) ok. That sounds REALLY fancy, that shit sounds bomb. But yeah you know the whole fucking Mayan calendar bullshit.<\/p>\n A: OH ok.<\/p>\n Y: Yeah that\u2019s when I released it so I was like, ok whatever we\u2019re all gonna die. Anyway, Gospel Medley (which is in the video) was one of my favorite songs by Destiny\u2019s Child when I was growing up. We\u2019d always have power outages in Jamaica so me and my sisters, to occupy time we would sing that song. And it works perfectly because\u2026well I\u2019m going to miscount them. There\u2019s 4 of them. Yeah I always forget Kelly. I\u2019m sorry Kelly.<\/p>\n A: Poor Kelly.<\/p>\n Y: Yeah but there was 4 of us, so we could choose what harmony we were going to sing, and we\u2019d practice it all the time even though we have horrible voices. But that song came out right after Y2K and my family was convinced we were all going to die. So my family\u00a0was like \u201cit\u2019s the end!\u201d And I was like\u2026I\u2019m 10 years old. I can\u2019t die right now, I just started living! I just learned out to walk. We rung in midnight at church on doomsday.<\/p>\n A: And this was in Jamaica?<\/p>\n Y: Yeah this was in Jamaica. My parents are crazy.<\/p>\n A: That\u2019s really good.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>