About this project

What is Blown?

What does the all-American woman look like? Does a blonde girl come to mind? Is she smiling? Is there a dynamic element to her posture, perhaps as if she's standing near a wind machine?

Kenya (Robinson) will be partnering with New York-based curatorial collective AD Projects to actualize a series of performances, videos, photographs, and objects in her ongoing project, Blown. Kenya began the project earlier this year, when AD Projects invited her to perform in the the temporary space they occupied at 200 Avenue A in the East Village. Kenya donned a blonde wig and a white jumpsuit as Barbara Streisand's “Happy Days are Here Again” played in the background, and leaned towards a wind machine so that her adopted locks and the American flag she held could blow seductively in the artificial air current.

See a recording of the performance, which took place on June 5, 2011 here.

Blown developed out of Kenya's obsession with searching for the natural Blonde (female)/Blond (male). On her blog, Kenya writes, “I realized that my questions about blondness aren't a matter of real vs fake but a dialogue between 'real' and 'natural'. Marilyn Monroe is a real blonde. In fact, she is probably the realest blonde in history, leading the cultural space occupied by Cinderella, Barbie and Goldilocks. The natural state of her hair color is a non-issue in the context our collective imagination. I believe that this is the material accessed by individuals the world over and used as a kind of sympathetic magic. Indeed, Marilyn is necessarily a realer blonde than even Grace Kelly (a Natural one), emphasizing body modification as its own specific language.” By extension, the inevitable question posed in Blown is--couldn't a black woman be a real blonde?

AD Projects committed to helping Kenya secure funds and performance spaces so that she can continue to develop Blown and her conceptions of Blonde/Blond identity. Since June, she has expanded Blown into a multi-faceted, multi-media project, which will include performances, photography, video, and wig dissections. This second iteration of Blown as performance will ideally include 12-15 performers, each wearing zentai suits and wigs in varying shades of blonde. The performers will function as a female chorus, explicating the cultural associations we hold as Americans in relation to blondeness and female identity, as their wigs are blown by 6 or more wind machines. Individuality (ethnicity, physical appearance, personal style choices) will be obscured by the zentai suits, so the performers will represent a type (blonde) rather than unique personalities. The wind machines Kenya employs also draw attention to this tension between “real” and “natural,” as the air emanating from the fans physically acts upon a space, but is man-made and can be manipulated, unlike natural wind, over which we have no control. Before the performance, Kenya will perform a series of blonde wig dissections. These deconstructed hairpieces will be encased within plexiglass and will hang in the performance venue.

Kenya is currently a first year student in Yale's sculpture MFA Program. Her second performance of Blown will be held on November 15 or 16 as part of her end of year critique. It will take place either in New Haven or New York City, depending on the traveling capacity of her professors. Critiques are open to the public, so anyone is welcome (and encouraged) to attend! Details to come as the venue and timing are finalized.

Materials (a tentative listing): 

Live human female forms

Blonde wigs (measuring at least 12" in length)

Wind machine(s)

Zentai suits

Collective pop culture consciousness

Where your funds will go

75 % of funds will go to Kenya (Robinson) for materials to be used in the performance itself, documentation of the performance, wig dissections, and photography and video production.

25 % of funds will go to AD Projects to aide in advertising and promoting Blown, distribution of prints, and videos, and other rewards, and in securing venues for future iterations of this and other performances.

All rewards will be produced and shipped by December 15, in time for the holidays.

About Kenya (Robinson)

Kenya (Robinson) is a community-taught artist from Gainesville, Florida. A past resident of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s WorkSpace Program (2009-2010) and the 2010 Triangle Arts Workshop, her sculptural work has been exhibited at The Museum of Contemporary Diasporan Arts, The Jersey City Museum, The Aljira Center for Contemporary Art and The 60 Wall Street Gallery at Deutsche Bank. In addition, her performances have been featured at The Kitchen, Rush Arts Gallery, MoMA PS1, The DUMBO Arts Festival, Recess Activities Inc. and Cabinet Space. She is currently enrolled in Yale's MFA program for sculpture and lives and works in New Haven, CT.

Kenya's practice excavates the artifacts of a uniquely American, mass consumerist landscape. She believes that these mundane objects are valuable transmitters of culture. Through her art making, she positions herself as a sort of archeologist from a distant future who uses physical data (sound recordings, film, advertising/product copy, novelty items, hardware tools, pulp fiction, etc.) to piece together narratives revealing social, historical, geographical, and cultural perspectives.

Kenya’s process is partially inspired by her own consumerist tendencies. She often restricts her material sources to mass retailers: The 99¢ Store, closeout shops, Target and Wal-Mart. Cheap access and the overall ubiquity of this ‘stuff’ provides a compelling platform for conversations that incorporate humor, familiarity and insight.

About AD Projects

AD Projects is an independent, migratory curatorial organization. Founded in April 2009, AD Projects has staged many group exhibitions of emerging and mid-career artists in borrowed spaces. Kat Cohn, Jessica Gallucci, Abby Merrick and Jill Murphy curate and coordinate each exhibition outside of normal business hours; the name AD Projects is derived from the nature of their work “after dark.”

Based in New York, AD Projects has mainly worked in vacant apartments, artists’ studios, warehouse spaces, and storefronts around the city. They were also invited to curate an exhibition at the Central Utah Art Center in February 2011, where CAMERA VIVANT came to life. The show focused on narrative, non-documentary camera-based works from eight different artists.

During the spring and summer of 2011, AD Projects ran a popup gallery in an East Village storefront at 200 Avenue A. For two months, the four-person curatorial team repurposed a shut down bar called Superdive into a black box art gallery with the help of No Longer Empty’s Art in Empty Spaces Initiative. What unfolded was a dual series exclusively featuring New York-based artists entitled Reliquary/SUPERDARK. Reliquary consisted of four week-long solo exhibitions, while SUPERDARK presented appearances by five performance artists.

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