Issue # 16 jc lenochan

Curated By: Nicole Franchy

“Everything we see has the potential to become inexplicably something else in terms of social justice and trans-pedagogy, wherein concepts dictate materials and process.” – jc lenochan

jc lenochan is an American neo-conceptualist multi-disciplinary artist and educator.

In his drawings and installations jc lenochan articulates his concerns on society's rifts. The artist orchestrates a slow immersive engaging experience of what is present as well as what has been erased and invites us to navigate it throughout his drawings. On viewing lenochan´s gestural chalk - drawings one encounters firm lines and poignant ideas which include organigrams on mainstream narratives turned into powerful poetic allegories shedding light into the problematics of perpetuating westernized single perspectives and knowledge.  

lenochan´s “Geographic Routes to Miscegenation”, intervenes a vintage “Royal Series World Map” where he marks the trans-Atlantic slave trade routes which started in the XVI century, above there are chalk drawn skulls labeled: negroid, mongoloid, caucasoid and hybroids ironizing on the scientifical fallacies of race creation and division. His drawings, erasures and reaffirmations depict the origins of asymmetrical relationships of colonial injustices that have persisted throughout centuries.

Whitewashed “how in the world does white run off” Reads one of his drawings where an incomplete world map of Africa, Asia and Europe is depicted on the top right (missing the Americas) while the rest of the image unfolds, as what could be a trans-generational metaphor of historical characters in North America. A self-portrait of the artist standing in the middle framed by dwarfed characters of American society, actively foam bathing him as what could be his personal allegory of "undoing whiteness”: a native American elderly woman, –  sitting at an observational station highlighting her importance in the drawing, while remaining vigilant as the scene unveils, a dwarfed indigenous man with a long sweeping brush standing atop of a ladder washing the artist, below him in a sarcastic attitude a gold rusher holding a bottle in one hand and a brush in the other, across him a hooded young man with a hose, helped by a man that could be recognized as Abraham Lincoln also brushing him off. A kneeled man praying sits at the bottom of the scene. On top of the drawing one can read - We could start a new world with what we don´t know – and written throughout the piece: - Definition of democracy - ethnological un washing - orientalism - postcolonialism – un colonization - a clash project - white lies – conversations - definition of otherness - people get defined - trans-Atlantic companies - New Humans…

Throughout his mind maps lenochan quotes Jean-Paul Sartre, Franz Fanon, James Baldwin, Edward Said, C.L.R. James amongst other philosophers, intellectuals and political activists. From the intimacy of his chalk drawings channeling Paulo Freire´s pedagogical methods, “he poses questions on problem solving’s” for the spectator to encounter them. The artist interweaves ideas and misrepresentations of images, texts and systems of knowledge which have impacted collective and personal narratives related to post-colonial thinking and the construction of race. 

On “Mann act: on the books for one man of many”, lenochan´s drawing of boxer Jack Johnson fighting as suggested by the title seems like a symbolic struggle for his civil rights against a headless contender, at the height of the Jim Crow era. And on “When meaning is up to you” chalk drawing or “new landscapes” the artist portrays as well as adopts the aesthetics of protest-signs. On “new landscapes” the ephemeral chalk used in the classrooms, as well as to activate plights on the streets represent a fantasmatic portrayal of demonstrations. Depicting raised fists, evoking reignited social justice movements, current and historical, against the backdrop of systemic racism in the Black Lives Matter era.

These are drawings that punch our mind and our understanding which give space to revisit our thoughts towards an inclusive narrative, re-thinking possibilities towards “New humanness” or "New Humans" as the artist states. His satirical and poignant sense of humor raises intellectual un-doings and epistemological amendments. lenochan´s oeuvre is a several decades ongoing artistic work. Citing the artist, It's about time.

Nicole Franchy