Video (color, sound; 10:24 min); five inkjet prints; three green glass bottles in plastic and metal suitcase; two works on sewn cloth with Velcro; green terrycloth headband; red terrycloth Croakie; painted wooden table and legs; painted wooden bench; cotton, polyester, and tulle dress; and Lycra, cotton, and plastic jockstrap with plastic case
Not on view
Eracism is a set of nine scripted “solo art performance lectures” that investigate race, sexuality, and nationalism in the United States. Interspersed with songs and actions, the performances combine elements of experimental theater and stand-up comedy.
Eracism (version 8b), the iteration seen here, features a character named Mr. Poots (played by Pope.L) wearing a semitransparent tulle dress, a green headband, work boots, and a makeshift codpiece forged from a jockstrap fused with gaffers tape to a plastic bottle with an eye drawn on it. Periodically, Mr. Poots opens a case and pulls out a glass jar filled with water and pours it over his head as he recites a meandering dialogue on “the spectrum of hate, the spectrum of night, the spectrum of invisible light which is American racism.”
October 21, 2019–February 1, 2020
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Pope.L
American, 1955–2023 33 works onlineFor five days, Pope.L sat on a toilet situated atop a tall makeshift tower, reading and eating a copy of the Wall Street Journal soaked in milk and ketchup.
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