David-Jeremiah’s FOGA (“Felon Yoga”)
Presented by CulturalDC
Virtual project with temporary art installation component
16 July 2022 – 7 June 2023
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PRESS RELEASE
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS DROPBOX FOLDER OF IMAGE FILES
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE IN-CANON PROJECT WEBSITE
(teaser video embedded within)
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS INTERACTIVE, VIRTUAL WALK-THROUGH OF THE IMMERSIVE PRISON DAY ROOM INSTALLATION
Set within an immersive art installation inspired by a prison day room, FOGA (“Felon Yoga”) is a virtually accessible conceptual artwork of guided exercise class videos from the Dallas-based interdisciplinary artist David-Jeremiah (b. 1985, Dallas; permanent collections include the Dallas Museum of Art). A non-exhaustive list of themes explored in FOGA includes empathy, radical nonviolence, redemption, Black male mental health, and expectations and manifestations of Black masculinity.
Taking place within a cross-disciplinary universe of the “FOGA”-branded wellness franchise, in-canon literature describes FOGA as “a therapeutic wellness program centered on healthily and mindfully channeling your desire to kill cops into imaginary acts of violence by way of yoga-inspired movements.” Utilized in the videos is art-object ‘exercise equipment’ branded with the FOGA logo (a peace sign made of shell casings), such as cinderblocks in place of yoga blocks; guns in place of free weights; and limited-edition merch with which an in-canon infomercial encourages you to “tone up your athleisure wardrobe.”
Darryl Ratcliff, a Dallas-based community organizer and artist, contends in an essay related to the show that FOGA is the ultimate embodiment and ideal of radical nonviolence. “The brilliance of FOGA is that the character performed by David-Jeremiah is at once absurd, menacing, and profound. The work directly acknowledges the fact that many people of color have strong negative feelings towards police officers because of hundreds of years of police brutality and harassment. However, instead of ignoring these feelings, David-Jeremiah creates constructs to express and process through them. As jarring and violent as his artwork sometimes appears, the violence is only metaphorical or perhaps even meditative. In fact, by ultimately choosing dialogue over actual violence, Jeremiah pursues the path of radical nonviolence.”
The exhibition consists of three components:
An intricate art installation based on a prison day room, which will remain on view to the public for a couple months
A year-long virtually accessible content interface with performance art videos
A series of sculptural art objects, available for purchase (with proceeds split between the artist and the nonprofit), in the form of the FOGA-branded ‘exercise equipment’ that appears in the videos, each a handmade-variant edition of five
More information is in the above-linked press release, and a preview of video stills and sculptural objects is below. See the Dropbox folder linked above to download high-resolution image files. Image usage is with credit to “David-Jeremiah and CulturalDC” unless otherwise indicated in the file title.
