During the six-minute video, there is no performer to see. Instead, the viewer is presented with a red spotlight on the floor and an audio track accompanied by running text of Bradford’s script as he assumes the character of a black transgendered comedian who delivers a routine to a laughing audience.
Note that the exhibition includes graphic language and references, and is intended for mature audiences only.
“We all have these stereotypes of gender and race and class in our brains,” Bradford (left) says in the Scorched Earth exhibition catalogue. “So I just wanted to inhabit that space, that dark space, and I wanted people’s imaginations to take over and understand that imagination itself.”
Bradford’s act is reminiscent of and provoked by the raw, often homophobic and misogynistic rants of 1980s standup comedy acts—particularly Eddie Murphy’s controversial 1983 concert film Delirious.
Having seen Murphy’s act in person, Bradford, a gay African-American artist based in Los Angeles, noted the seismic shift in 1980s comedic vernacular in which racist and sexist commentary entered the mainstream.
“The piece is about that moment of hysteria and fear and homophobia in the eighties, and the black community’s relationship to it,” Bradford says in an interview with The New Yorker. “I’m fascinated by these moments when something goes from being taboo to being socially acceptable.”
Bradford first exhibited Spiderman at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles as part of the larger exhibition, Scorched Earth. Spiderman is one of only a few video installations by Bradford, who is more widely known for his abstract, layered paintings and mixed-media collages.
UMMA’s installation presents a rare and important opportunity to view this lesser-known aspect of the artist’s work.
“Mark Bradford’s work touches on critical issues facing our culture today at the intersection of race, gender identity, and sexuality,” says UMMA Director Joseph Rosa. “We look forward to the dialogue that will take place around this exhibition.”
Learn More
Mark Bradford: Spiderman - On view at UMMA July 30-November 27, 2016
Mark Bradford Biography - Hauser & Wirth
Mark Bradford in Paradox - PBS.org