In 2010, Kenturah Davis was featured in the television documentary, Ray Charles America, as a visual artist. Here is footage from the filming that show the artist composing a portrait by writing the phrase "I believe to my soul." The filmed has aired on the Biography channel and featured in two film festivals. Ray Charles America includes interviews by Clint Eastwood, Bill Cosby, Quincy Jones, B.B. King, Common, Norman Lear, Willie Nelson, and many more. Directed by Alexis Manya Spraic. Written and produced by Morgan Neville and Alexis Manya Spraic for Tremolo Productions. Director of Photography, Warren Kommers
In 2010, Kenturah Davis was featured in the television documentary, Ray Charles America, as a visual artist. Here is footage from the filming that show the artist composing a portrait by writing the phrase "I believe to my soul." The filmed has aired on the Biography channel and featured in two film festivals. Ray Charles America includes interviews by Clint Eastwood, Bill Cosby, Quincy Jones, B.B. King, Common, Norman Lear, Willie Nelson, and many more. Directed by Alexis Manya Spraic. Written and produced by Morgan Neville and Alexis Manya Spraic for Tremolo Productions. Director of Photography, Warren Kommers
This is a teaser video for a short film documenting the entire "euphemisms" project and exhibition at Curve Line Space gallery (Los Angeles, CA). It features the drawings of Kenturah Davis and an art performance with appearances by John Daley, Jim "Gittum" Rodgers and Tim Yalda. A DVD of the extended version will accompany a hand-made, limited edition artist book, including a fine art print, photographs by Xavier Fumat and an essay about the drawing series. Check kenturah.com for updates.
Kenturah Davis is a Los Angeles artist and has produced work for exhibitions, collaborations, film and commissions locally and abroad.
John Daley is a published poet and criminal defense lawyer specializing in death penalty defense. His latest publication is The Poetry of Sappho, with Page duBois, accompanied by the art of painter Julie Mehretu (Arion Press, 2011). His law credits include defending Viet Nam War protestors and involvement in the Attica trials following the deadly prison riot and massacre…
This video is a rough cut of the making of Kenturah Davis' first large-scale wall drawing for the exhibition "euphemisms" at Curve Line Space gallery in Los Angeles. It appropriates the phrase "Terminate with extreme prejudice" which was popularized in the film, Apocalypse Now, to compose a drawing of the late Troy Davis. The expression is commonly used in military and covert operations as a euphemism for an execution. Near the close of the exhibition, the drawing will be blacked-out with paint and extracted from the wall to exist as an artifact of the narrative of Troy Davis' execution. By drawing all of these subjects with text, Davis makes palpable the ideas and experiences that are embodied in language. The words are layered to the point of illegibility as a way to substantiate the space of things unnamed, unarticulated and immaterial.
Kenturah Davis is a Los Angeles artist and has produced work for exhibitions, artist collaborations, film and commissions. The core of her work oscillates…
In this video Kenturah Davis created her first large-scale wall drawing at Curve Line Space Gallery in Los Angeles, California. It was composed by hand writing a text in repetition until the subject emerges. This work appropriates the phrase "Terminate with extreme prejudice" which was popularized in the film, "Apocalypse Now, to compose a drawing of Troy Davis, the death row inmate who was executed in the Georgia on September 21, 2011 despite controversial circumstances. The expression has been used in military and covert operations as a euphemism for execution. Near the close of the exhibition, the drawing will be blacked-out with paint and extracted from the wall to exist as a metaphor and artifact of Troy Davis' story.
Song: "The World Is A Hustle" by Lauryn Hill
Kenturah Davis is a Los Angeles artist and has produced work for exhibitions, artist collaborations, film and commissions. The core of her work oscillates between portraiture and design, exploring themes related to the body and the formation of identities. Using oilstick and rubber stamp letters Davis creates her latest series, "euphemisms." In the new drawings, Davis continues to explore the ideas of self-identification and socialization through portraiture. These works specifically look at the use of euphemisms as a rhetorical device to convey layers of meaning about the self. The work surveys the artist's fascination with the ever-growing scope of figures of speech and our ability to understand, exacerbate and/or neutralize meaning through everyday communications.
In layering the text to make the drawings, they exist as a metaphor for the ways we construct our own identities and perceive one another through language. By writing down a text in repetition, via hand-writing or using rubber…
watch how the artist creates portraits by writing a text repeatedly to build up the image.
in 2011, kenturah completed a new series of works called "euphemisms." it included a large wall drawing of troy davis, a prison inmate who was executed by the state of georgia under extremely controversial circumstances. Past projects include a feature in the television documentary, "Ray
watch how the artist creates portraits by writing a text repeatedly to build up the image.
in 2011, kenturah completed a new series of works called "euphemisms." it included a large wall drawing of troy davis, a prison inmate who was executed by the state of georgia under extremely controversial circumstances. Past projects include a feature in the television documentary, "Ray Charles' America." Kenturah was asked to draw a portrait of the late singer for the film. the documentary airs on the bio channel.
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