BRAD
PINNOCK
Work
Teacher, Nuh Teach Me Nuh Nonsense (Solo Exhibition), 2022.
Brad Pinnock visits local betting houses where he collects ephemera such as betting slips, gambling receipts and cigarette boxes to create motifs within his art that “investigates the human predicament, particularly as it relates to black people's psychological struggles and the gamble of living under the continued effects of coloniality”. His horse and rider motifs are made as metaphors for our precarious relationships to the vicissitudes of these challenging times and “speak to how, like horses, black people have been bred, sold and exploited for profit,” as part of a long colonial tradition. At the same time, the work contemplates the history of animal experiments in the field of behaviorism, particularly those studies done in Operant Conditioning which the artist says is a “tool used for influencing people to support ideas and programs which turns us into passive consumers and passive citizens”.
Drawing from his own experiences as well as research from the field of consumer psychology and behaviorism, Pinnock is developing a lens through which to interrogate the relationship between western political ideologies, culture and propaganda, and black people’s conditioned responses and its connections to that culture. Pinnock’s exhibition at NLS is a large-scale trans-disciplinary mixed-materials indoor /outdoor installation that brings into focus the surrounding architecture. This architectural inflection draws a profound parallel between building, materiality, spatiality, notions of spectacles and power viz, black people’s global powerlessness and predicaments.
Race Apocalypse, Mixed Media Collage on Paper, Wooden Chair, 2021.
The piece investigates the effects of European-induced desires upon the Afrikan mind as a form of neocolonialism expressed through the metaphor of the horse and the rider.
The horse is seen as a metaphor for powerful emotional desires, while the rider directs the horse's movement by controlling its behaviour. Thus the rider has power over the horse and emotions. Emotions, like horses, are much stronger than their riders so the rider uses rewards and punishments to manipulate the horse's behaviour. However, this leaves the horse in a precariously subordinate position, left to the complete mercy or inhumanity of the rider. This position has dire consequences for the horse, for along with being the most tortured animal many horses have been led by riders to run until they die. For black people, the horse can be seen as a metaphor for our reality of living under white domination. We have allowed other people to control us both psychically and psychologically by inducing desires in us that work against our best interests as a people. Hence, most blacks are easily manipulated and controlled by the dominant white power structure while at the same time feeling that they acting out of their own volition. A hack-jacking of free will if you will. In this state, the individual's psychology is so pathologically infected that any choice he makes turns out to be a choice which works against him and in the best interest of other people. The gambling industry is just one area of society where this is quite rampant. As it is well-known that house never loses.
The Engineering of Consent: A Democratic Paradox (Final Year Visual Thesis Project), Various Material Installation, 2021.
My final year work mainly follows a collage process where I gather found material such as betting slips from gambling houses, fabric, metal, paper and miscellaneous objects that I then meticulously arrange, paste, paint or draw on top of to create an image or sculpture. I work in almost an entirely processed focused way; in other words, I am not trying to create the desired outcome per se I am just trying to develop the work further and further. My work predominantly focuses on the idea of the horse and the rider to express the emotional and thinking sides of human nature. The horse can be seen as the emotional side of our nature. It is filled with energy and passion which keeps us moving forward while the rider can be seen as the thinking self which breaks in the horse and through practice can direct the horse’s power into something productive. Neither can do without the other, without the horse there is no energy, and without the rider, the horse is wild, has no direction and is subject to predators. With my work, I am trying to find the balance between that scepticism of the rider and the curiosity of the horse, which is why my process is quite experimental. While creating my artworks, I am sometimes allowing my inner horse to roam free and gallop while at the same time, I am thinking about these decisions and how they relate to my practice and context. Other times this process is not simultaneous, and one may come before the other nevertheless, balance is always necessary. My work explores ideas about self-discovery, the relationship between the irrational and rational sides of our nature and how that relates to the broader society. As most people are driven by their emotions and the rider or thinking self is weak which makes us highly susceptible to manipulation, in other instances the rider is too dominant and stifles the horse. This dilemma is prevalent across the society where most people want to achieve success in life, whatever that means by whatever means necessary or if not that as fast as possible. In other words, most people are outcome-based, caught up with fantasies and desires while ignoring the process of achieving these things. This is too evident in the gambling industry, which is I am using different material from gambling houses as this part of my work seeks to explore ideas of instant gratification in Jamaica’s fast life culture. I am also interested in the repurposing culture of Jamaica, and this idea of how something can be reused or perceived in a way that it was not originally intended. I think with my work; I am trying to find the balance between the thinking and emotional, the rational and irrational, the conscious and unconscious. On the one hand, I am consciously making decisions contextually and formally about the work and on the other hand, unconsciously allowing myself to flow with a natural rhythm. I am also encouraging the viewer to find the value in the process and that without it, there is no outcome to be achieved.
