There Are No Shadows Here: The Perfect Moment

There Are No Shadows Here: The Perfect Moment at 30 was a multi-part project comprising a photographic exhibition, a series of lectures and roundtable discussions, a film screening, and an experimental publication. The project aimed to provoke new conversations around those aspects of Robert Mapplethorpe’s life and practice that have been pushed to the periphery by recent institutional legacy-building activities.

WPA invited McClodden to curate this project on the 30thanniversary of its presentation of Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment (July 20 – August 13, 1989). That exhibition, which was organized by the ICA in Philadelphia, had been scheduled to travel to the Corcoran Gallery of Art but was canceled for fear of “adversely affect[ting] the NEA’s congressional appropriations,” according to Christina Orr-Cahall, the Corcoran’s Director at the time. WPA agreed to present the show less than 24 hours after it was canceled. Its swift actions set an example of one organization challenging another around issues of institutional censorship.

PROGRAMMING

Opening Response to The Perfect Moment at 30 by Curator Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Thursday, July 18, 6 – 8 pm

Film Screening: Mapplethorpe Look At The Pictures
Friday, July 19, 7 – 9 pm

Oluremi C. Onabanjo on Rotimi Fani Kayode
Saturday, July 20, 3 – 4 pm

Mia Kang on Alvin Baltrop
Saturday, July 20, 4:30 – 5:30 pm

Alex Fialho on Glenn Ligon, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the NEA
Sunday, July 21, 3 – 4 pm

Tiona Nekkia McClodden on Marlon Riggs
Sunday, July 21, 4:30 – 5:30 pm