REVIEW
KAHLIL JOSEPH: DOUBLE CONSCIENCE
MOCA GRAND AVENUE
March 20th – August 16th
Great pride pulsed through my veins when I watched Kahlil Joseph’s Compton inspired video collage. I felt the fallen angels of Los Angeles smiling down on me covered in goose bumps while I admired the romantic struggle of my surrounding communities. The love/hate relationship between Los Angeles and her inhabitants was entertaining, inspiring, and beautiful.
The video pieces gave the neighboring Sturtevant exhibition a more human quality, rather than artificial. Sturtevant’s work became honorable tributes and I dismissed my previous read of the works being over appropriated statements.
The title Double Conscience points to the two screens showing both contrasting and harmonious images of underprivileged suburban neighborhoods, amorous African-American families, and the underbelly of gang violence.
The title also provides questions about the multiple perspectives of morality. Underneath the ugly veil of illegal activity there is love, harmony, and understanding. And put a Kendrick Lamar track on top of anything to get the blood moving and the tears forming.
Joseph’s video collage should be watched by anyone struggling to comprehend gang violence. Maybe if other’s watched this humanizing documentation of poverty-stricken areas, there would be more shoulders to cry on.
