Since his days working as the Coordinator of Mathematics at the Ringling College of Art & Design, American conceptual artist and activist John Sims has developed strong roots in the community, and wishes to continue to sharing his voice with the audiences of Sarasota and Florida.
This fall, Sims will showcase his work as an artist in residence for the Art of Performance Program at the Ringling Museum. Sims plans to host evenings combining his visual art, written work, sound and performance at the Historic Asolo Theater, where audiences will become immersed in his message about struggles Black Americans face, the fight against police brutality, racial injustice and Confederate iconography in the South. The performances will be prefaced by artist talks (dates to be announced later in 2020), where Sims will discuss his work, which will touch on current issues such as Covid-19 affecting the Black community, the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality.
"I work in the context of John Sims projects, which is a collection I've been working on for more than 20 years, since I came down to teach at the Ringling," says Sims. His main projects have surrounded the concept of combining math with art, research in activism and dealing with issues like the Civil War, Confederate iconography as it relates to white supremacy and African American culture.
"I am interested in oppositional dynamics, using my math-art mind to create either synergetic energy, or even repulsive energy in an audience," says Sims.
Coming from a working-class background in Detroit, Sims' experiences as a Black man and artist serve as a mirror for what audiences are experiencing in the world today. "I want my work to activate myself and others," says Sims. "Whether that's through engaging, lecturing or simply talking, I want to get folks inspired to move the culture somehow."
Sims' work tackling Confederate iconography, namely the Confederate flag, began at a show in Soho in New York City in 1999, where Sims created stickers he calls, "AfroConfederate bumper stickers." He reconstructed the Confederate flag with the colors of black nationalism, black, red and green, and later replicated a 4-foot-by-4-foot version of this flag for a show called Summer in the City in 2000. Audiences were shocked and confused by Sims' intentions.
"It was like an elephant in the room and no one paid attention to it," says Sims.
From there, Sims brought his Afro-Confederate flag out to protest. He protested a KKK meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida, and realized that audiences need further context to understand his message. So, he developed a work called, The Proper Way to Hang the Confederate Flag, which showcased a Confederate flag hanging from 13-foot gallows in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This outspoken message shocked the press, leading to negative media attention and forcing Sims to boycott his own show.
"I wanted to be at the right place at the right time, for a national discussion about white supremacy and the Confederacy," says Sims. "You can get ready to start a fire, but if it's raining, that fire will never start."
In 2015, Sims launched Burn and Bury, a nationwide campaign consisting of ritualistic burning ceremonies of Confederate flags. In collaboration with artists around the country, the campaign grew to tearing down Confederate monuments and statues. In this time, Sims continued to refine his sound art, an integral part of his conceptual practice, and developed a CD called Afro Dixie Remixes, a remix of the song "Dixie," in the key of Black music with Sarasota's Black performers.
Fast forward to 2020 and the death of George Floyd by police brutality that shook the nation, and Sims. It inspired him to press even further into activism, writing Op-ed pieces for local and national publications including CNN, Al Jazeera, The HuffPost and TheGrio. He wrote a piece called Dear Police, published in the Orlando Sentinel and sent to Sarasota Chief of Police Bernadette DiPino, whom Sims challenged to reply.
DiPino's reply will become a sound duet piece between her and Sims' initial letter, featured as one of three parts in his residency. The first part will address the coronavirus, to which Sims created a powerful self-portrait where he's surrounded by black, red and green-colored viruses. In addition, Sims created a virus-themed video game called Korona Killa, responding to the collective fear of the virus, featured on his website.
"We are facing a dual pandemic, with the coronavirus and with police brutality," says Sims. "I decided to refine my portrait to include copied viruses with blue line flags around it, representing the police and capturing this journey we're taking."
The last part of Sims' residency will include his flag work and recent fight to tear down Confederate monuments in Florida, like Sarasota's former statue honoring 1800s Confederate politician Judah P. Benjamin. He also created a petition to remove Benjamin's memorial at the Gamble Plantation in Ellenton.
"All the things I'm talking about are current, but it's stuff I've been working on for years," says Sims. "From the time I started making Afro-Confederate bumper stickers to now, everything is coming full circle and people finally seem ready to receive the message."
Sims hopes his residency and performance will continue the conversation surrounding these issues, and stimulate audiences' imagination of what change could look like.
"This work is addressing things people are seeing on the news, and talking about with friends and family," says Sims. "That, with educational context about what we're facing, creates possibility for real transformation."
John Sims will be an artist in residence Sept. 11-20 at the Ringling Museum of Art. To learn more about the Art of Performance program, click here.
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August 19, 2020 at 08:42PM
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Ringling Museum Welcomes Sarasota Artist John Sims in New Residence Program - Sarasota
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