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
