Events

[RE] Birth of a Nation

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

For her most comprehensive Baltimore City exhibition to date, Kim Rice continues to explore themes of redlining, gentrification, housing, generational wealth, and neighborhoods. Working with archival lustre paper and common materials, Rice’s art serves as a creative critique on historic policies that still affect American society today.

“Baltimore is the birthplace of redlining,” explains Rice. “The Federal Government used Baltimore as a model for oppression and replicated it across the country. I love this city. I see the tenacity and creativity of the people here and believe that if Baltimore was once a model for oppression, we can become a model of equity for the country. ‘[RE] Birth of a Nation’ is a love letter to Baltimore change-makers and creatives who are already doing the work. To the rest of us, it is a call for philanthropy and support.”

Rice uses craft-based media to examine the construct of race through a lens of whiteness. Woven, sewn, and linked together, her large-scale installations reveal the ways in which whiteness is woven into our everyday lives. “With Kim, I found a level of authenticity, vulnerability, honesty, and ownership of what white in America can look like and its proximity to Blackness using weaving as a metaphor,” says curator Kirk Shannon-Butts. “Kim is a great addition to The Baltimore Movement — a group of Baltimore-based contemporary artists who are influencing the culture of city, the country, and the world through their art.”

The choice to produce Rice’s exhibition in this particular gallery — 27 stories above the daily activities of Baltimoreans — serves to amplify her message. ‘[RE] Birth of a Nation’ is an artful, political, and societal 360 of Baltimore City and beyond. Viewers are asked to reflect on their lived experiences and the effect location has played on them. Rice’s goal is for the audience to see another perspective. “I am deeply interested in perspective,” Rice says. “The ways in which I can look at an issue or experience and my view will be completely different than that of someone else.”

[RE]Birth of a Nation Image List:

Images #1-#3 Descriptions

1. Title: [RE]Birth of a Nation Medium: Archival Photo Lustre: Baltimore HOLC (Redlining) Map, Chapter from The Black Butterfly by Lawerence T Brown Dimensions: 8’ x 8’ Year: 2023 Price: 25K Description: I hand cut and hand wove the Baltimore Redlining map with Lawerence T Brown’s Chapter called Healing the Black Butterfly in which he lays out a thorough plan to bring equity to the city.

2. Title: The Greatest City in America Medium: Books, Watercolor, QR Codes Dimensions: Varies (1300 flowers and counting...) Year: 2023 Price: 25K Description: I bought books by Baltimore Authors at Baltimore based bookstores. I then hand ripped and folded pages to create petals and then flowers. I hand painted them with watercolor. Special thanks: Gavin, Aria, Treme’, Ella, Rowan, Kirstin, Kara, Madi, Lindz

Books used in this installation:

Books used in this installation:

1. The Cook Up – D. Watkins

2. Black Boy Smile – D. Watkins

3.The Beast Side -D. Watkins

4. We Speak for Ourselves – D. Watkins

5. Raw Wounds – Kondwani Fidel

6. Hummingbirds in the Trenches – Kondwani Fidel

7. The Anti-Racist – Kondwani Fidel

8. The Black Butterfly – Lawrence T. Brown

9. We Were Eight Years in Power – TaNehisi Coates

10. The Water Dance – TaNehisi Coates

11. Between the World and Me – TaNehisi Coates

12. The Beautiful Struggle – Ta Nehisi Coates

13. 5 Days – Wes Moore & Erica L. Green

14. The Other Wes Moore – Wes Moore

15. I Got a Monster – Baynard Woods & Brandon Soderberg

16. Inheritance – Baynard Woods

17. The Master Plan – Chris Wilson

18. Not in My Neighborhood – Antero Pietila

19. The Ghost of John Hopkins – Antero Pietila

20. Baltimore Revisited – King, Drabinksi, Davis

21. If You Love Baltimore it will Love you Back – Ron Cassie

22. Baltimore Civil Rights Leader – Victorine Q. Adams & Ida Jones

23 Baltimore Monuments – Thomas Cotter

24.The Line Between US – Lawrence Lanahan

25. All the Pieces Matter – Jonathan Abrams

26. We Own This City – Justin Fenton

27. The Glass Eye – Jeannie Vanasco

28. Kings of B’More – R. Eric Thomas

29. Things We Didn’t Talk About When I was a Girl – Jeannie Vanasco

30. Miss Chloe – A. J. Verdelle

31. Lost Restaurants of Baltimore – Suzanne Loudermilk & Kitwaskom Pollard

32. Loner Forensics – Thea Brown

33. The Portero Complex – Amy L. Bernstein

34. Baltimore A Political History – Matthew Crenson

 

Change Makers:

1. BUILD

2. Backyard Basecamp

3. Station North Tool Library

4. Byke Collective

5. Our Time Kitchen

6. Black Women Build

7. Parity Homes

8. Nosreme Baltimore

9. Vacants Series by Zadia

10. Heart Smiles

11. Project Jumpstart

12. St Francis Community Center

13. Bmore Youth Arts

14. Bmore Empowered

15. Jubilee Arts

16. Mentoring Male Teens in the Hood - Baltimore

17. Merit Health Baltimore

18. Black Yield Institute

19. Pro Bono Counseling Baltimore

20. ReBuild Metro

21. Accomplished Art Apprentices

22. Baltimore Peace Movement

23. B360

24. Greenmount Community Center

25. AfroCharities

26. Art With a Heart

27. Black Arts District Baltimore

28. Open Works

29. Upsurge

30. Amazing Grace Church

31. Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform

Image Descriptions #3-#15

3. Title: Complicit Medium: Archival Photo Lustre: Self Portrait, HOLC (Redlining) Maps Dimensions: 60” x 37” Year: 2021 Price: 9K Description: I hand cut and wove all the redlined cities where I have lived into my self portrait

4. Title: Redlining Tapestries Medium: Housewrap, HOLC (Redlining) Maps Dimensions: 2 Panels, 3’ x 11’ Year: 2015 Price: 15K Description: I hand cut and wove ten HOLC (redlining) maps into industrial house-wrap

5. Title: The Safety Net - Baltimore Medium: Zipties Dimensions: 6’ x 7’ Year: 2018 Price: 20K Description: This is the HOLC (redlining) map of Baltimore made entirely out of zipties. It references redlining, building materials, segregation, generational wealth and policing.

6. Title: The Safety Net - Richmond Medium: Zipties Dimensions: 5’ x 8’ Year: 2018 Price: 20K Description: This is the HOLC (redlining) map of Richmond made entirely out of zipties. It references redlining, building materials, segregation, generational wealth and policing.

7. Title: The Divide – New Orleans Medium: Roofing Paper, New Orleans HOLC (redlining) maps Dimensions: 14 two-sided panels, 4’ x 10’ each Year: 2017 Price: 50K for 7 panels Description: Hand cut and woven panels create the image of the Mississippi as it curves around New Orleans. The panels are two-sided and can be installed several ways. This piece connects the cartography of New Orleans to redlining and the repercussions of that during Katrina.

8. Title: Miami Medium: Miami HOLC (redlining) map, magazines Dimensions: 24.5” x 29” Year: 2017 Price: 5K Description: I hand cut out all the neighborhoods in the map. I then wove magazines of white eurocentric flesh into the areas that received access to mortgages. It is framed between acrylic so shadows and absence are visible

9. Title: Oklahoma City Medium: Oklahoma Dimensions: 21” x 29” Year: 2017 Price: 5K Description: I hand cut out all the neighborhoods in the map. I then wove magazines of white eurocentric flesh into the areas that received access to mortgages. It is framed between acrylic so shadows and absence are visible

10. Title: For Sale - Akron Medium: Akron HOLC map, Sign Dimensions: 20” x 26” Year: 2019 Price: 1K Description:

11. Title: For Sale - Plymouth Medium: Signs, Monotype, Ink, Graphite Dimensions: 19” x 16” Year: 2019 Price: 3K Description:

12. Title: The Long Shadow - Cleveland Medium: Cleveland HOLC (redlining) map, Embroidery thread Dimensions: 5’ x 4’ (Shadows vary) Year: 2019 Price: 8K Description: Areas that did not receive mortgages ("declining" and "hazardous") are hand cut out and then hand embroidered with red thread, shadows project on the wall.

13. Title: The Long Shadow - Hamilton Medium: Hamilton HOLC (redlining) map Dimensions: 36” x 48” (shadows vary) Year: 2019 Price: 7K Description: I hand cut house shapes out of the areas deemed "definetly declining" and "hazardous". Their absence creates shadows on the wall.

14. Title: This is America - Brooklyn Medium: Brooklyn HOLC (redlining) map, Monotype, Ink Dimensions: 24” x 36” Year: 2021 Price: 5K Description: Areas that had access to mortgages are filled with the founding fathers/money. Areas that did not receive access to mortgages are cut away exposing “this is America”

15. Title: Manhattan Medium: Manhattan HOLC (redlining) map, paper, thread Dimensions: 2 Panels 2’ x 3’ Year: 2021 Price: 5k Description: Dyptch. Areas that had access to mortgages are filled with the founding fathers/money. Areas without access are cut away and embroidered with red thread

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