Who Are You Looking At?

I’m still checking out William Cordova. From my somewhat narrow perspective his work seems to rescue history and culture. He shifts through the misinformation that has been heaped upon it and restores it to a presence even greater than its experienced life. That’s not to suggest that he makes the memory of the past or the reflection of today better but, instead, he makes it more truthful. Cordova goes below the surface of the sensational to reveal very factual information. He presents these histories and events with compassion to those who lived them and with kindness to those who are unaware, by wrapping his work in subtle metaphor, allowing the viewer to come close to what they were taught to believe and what they were taught to fear.

I love Cordova’s commitment and thoughtfulness. He has given me new ways of seeing. His work is not about the aesthetic in the literal sense although, once examined, it turns out to be very beautiful. Instead, and what I appreciate most, is that it invites and even challenges the viewer to investigate for themselves what’s being offered.

Since my introduction to William Cordova I have wondered how people become informed about art and what keeps them engaged to any particular body of work and how all of it pans out for audiences of color.
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I especially like this older piece entitled STAND UP NEXT TO A MOUNTAIN.


The piece addresses appropriation, co-opting and sampling of culture through image. The plastic wrapper suggests "product" but the Black men in it are defiant in that they are non participatory via the act of looking away from the viewer or spectator.
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William Cordova has been selected for the 2008 Whitney Biennial.