LORD OF FLIES CORONATION (PART 1)

Preach R Sun lies in cotton filled coffin, covered with bloody money (stapled to his body), and hundreds of live flies, during 12-hour durational action 'Lord of Flies’ (Birmingham England, 2017)

Notes/Testimony (part 1)

Points of Departure:

[The black] is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this Ameri[kkk]an world,—a world which yields him no self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. … The history of the Ameri[kkk]an Negro is the history of this strife—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. – W. E. B. Du Bois (The Souls of Black Folk)

He didn’t know what it was to be black ‘til they gave him his change But didn’t want to touch his hand

To even the toughest among us That would be too much – Sade (Immigrant)

There’s a little black spot on the sun today It’s the same old thing as yesterday There’s a black hat caught in the high tree top There’s a flag pole rag and the wind won’t stop I have stood here before inside the pouring rain With the world turning circles running ‘round my brain I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain – The Police (King of Pain)

I got, I got, I got, I got Loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA Cocaine quarter piece, got war and peace inside my DNA I got power, poison, pain and joy inside my DNA I got hustle though, ambition, flow, inside my DNA I was born like this, since one like this Immaculate conception I transform like this, perform like this Was Yeshua’s new weapon I don’t contemplate, I meditate, then off your fucking head This that put-the-kids-to-bed This that I got, I got, I got, I got – Kendrick Lamar (DNA)

Baptized in Blood, Reared in Shame….

The black is a body born under siege. As blackness is an inherent property of race, so does the black body (essentially) remain, as misappropriated chattel in a white (racially established and dominated) world – merely an object for white appraisal and arbitration. It (the black racialized body) is a body engineered and manufactured in false (yet ancient) historical factories. The black BEing (overdetermined from the outside) has been shaped and bound to this manufactured object. As subject and slave to its appearance, the black body (made fetish object) is the property and expression of a natural (racial) essence spawned out of a white established objectivity. Hence blackness, is the fetishized expression of a dehumanizing prestidigitation conjured from white supremacy voodoo.

The black is a tormented soul. Made to answer to its body, history, and ancestors, black is a BEing haunted by the ghosts of a dead past. A BEing inescapably afflicted, confined and attached to the fabrication of its marginalized (and inferiorly constructed) self. It is a BEing forever relegated to damnable corners. Trapped in the coffin of its racially induced alienation, the black body – existing in a state of constant derealization – is a body STILL denied and stripped of its human essence. The black BEing exists in eternal liminality – whereby blackness itself constitutes a perpetual state of middle passage – between the spatial and temporal world. Just as the “African” was delivered into slavery, so has the “black” been delivered into racialized existence. Just as African slaves were transported across the oceans in the hulls of slave ships (in their own blood, shit, piss and vomit), so today is the black BEing trapped in the hulls of the institutionalized (socially reproduced and preserved) slave ship of race. Here, the black BEing ruminates in its predetermined object-hood. STILL shackled in inferiority, while languishing in its own blood, shit, bile, vomit, shame and misery. And just as great white sharks – made ravenous from the smell and taste of African blood in those waters – religiously followed slave ships looking to feast on black bodies (tossed overboard); so (today) is the black body STILL religiously preyed upon by racist white men driven mad by the sight and smell of ‘NIGGER’ blood in the streets….

Evidence (Act i): Once again, i present myself in a uniform for 6 days leading up to my action. This time the uniform consists of an elephant mask, black suit w/slave ship piece attached to the back; and red Jordan sneakers fashioned w/gold chain and Master lock attachments. The chain, acting as a sort of signal or alarm, alerted all to my presence wherever i went (whenever i entered a room), such is the case of blackness….

1) ELEPHANT MASK: Race looms as the elephant in the room. It’s the, larger than life, monument that is forever present. (Race dictates EVERYTHING, yet and still, it is essentially an issue that we overall seek to quietly evade.) Thus, the elephant mask represented the pervasive presence of race – it is the quintessential determining factor – as that which we first and foremost identify, yet pretend to ignore. The mask was also a symbol of racialized existence, and the construct of race itself. In this regard the mask served as a representation of double consciousness (just as the black veil). As a symbol of race, the mask represented the block – the point of demarcation and alienation – that mediates our relationship to ourselves and the actual world. The elephant is also seen as a majestic beast (yet it is a beast nonetheless). It is a beast of burden, and a body hunted and fetishized. Again, these things also apply to the black (dehumanized) BEing. It too has been relegated to the status of mere savage and beast of burden; just as it has (throughout history) been hunted and fetishized. Lastly, the elephant (as a symbol of race) represented the power, scope, absoluteness, history, longevity, memory, and the (cooperative) societal makeup of the racial construct.

2) BLACK SUIT w/ SLAVE SHIP BACK PIECE: In a racialized society, black’s are essentially determined and defined by their appearance (such is the nature of blackness itself). And as blackness bears the historically established stigma of inferiority, the black body therefore can be deemed the uniform of black shame. In this regard, the black suit was meant to represent blackness as the social uniform/burden of inferiority that blacks have been made to bear. Also, as black has been made the hue of death and damnation. The black suit is a statement to the death (the murder of true humanity) and ruination of the black BEing as a result of race. Just as the orange prison suit, the black suit was a symbol of the black BEing, bound by its body to the prison of racialized existence. However, in this instance, the suit was also meant to exemplify the black BEing’s futile attempt to cover or disguise its racially imposed shame and inferiority, by dressing it up in the formality of (BLACK) dignity and excellence (i.e., keeping up appearances). In this context, the suit symbolized black’s desperate desideratum for white validation. As the black dress suit (a symbol of white objectivity) the formal item of distinguishability born out of traditional western culture, is indicative of white standards of prestige, refinement and distinction. Meanwhile, the slave ship (attached to the back of the suit) symbolized a type of sacred tablet – the commandment from which race would essentially be brought into being. As such the slave ship is the inescapable reminder as to the source of black shame – a spell or evocation that constantly activates, or resurrects the psychological condition of black inferiority. Thus the slave ship serves as a type of totemic object or representation of the womb from which the black body would be delivered into racialized existence. Mind you the slave ship, fashioned with coins, dollars, and (both) white and black figurines, is not meant to merely be a symbol or statement on the persecution and enslavement of “blacks”. It is, in fact, also meant to speak to the loss of our collective humanity under the social construct of race itself; as well as our collective enslavement to capitalism (the ultimate agent of white supremacy)…. THE BLOCKS THAT MAKE SLAVES OF US ALL.

3) RED JORDAN SNEAKERS w/ GOLD CHAINS & MASTER LOCK ATTACHMENTS: Here again, i used the Jordan sneakers – apotheosized as symbols of economic status (particularly in the black community) – to speak to the fetishization, and essentially disposable commodification of the black body; as well as the validation of white supremacy made manifest via blacks absolute dependency upon white, capitalism induced, agency. The sneakers (themselves fetish objects) were again representative of the objectified black body – it too fetishized and made object of commodification. Also, the sneakers – made famous for the superhumanesque athletic abilities of their eponym – are synonymous with flight (e. g., Mercury’s winged sandals). In this same context, the sneakers also signified transport – think Dorothy’s magical red slippers in the Wizard of Oz. As such, the sneakers were a statement to the inferior crafted mythology of the black (racialized) BEing, desperately seeking to transport itself (or transcend) out of its imposed inferiority via capitalism. As a body reduced to fetish object, the black is essentially grounded by its own externally imposed objectification. Which is to say, the black as (fetishized) magical creature possessing supernatural abilities – a magnificent, and superhuman flying savage (baited, captured/trapped and stripped of its wings) – even upon achieving success and economic prosperity, still essentially remains nothing other than the expression of white (capitalist articulated) objectivity. The black remains a conquered beast (merely a celebrated circus freak). A beast, no longer capable of flight, and unable to flee and escape its (racialized) condition – no, the runaway black (slave) cannot click its heels 3 times and return home. The black is a BEing made dependent upon its objectification, just as it is a BEing essentially broken under the kryptonite (golden Master locks and shackles) of white, capitalism induced, agency. Lastly, the red color of the sneakers were intended to symbolize the bloody feet of runaway slaves.

Baptism (Act ii): At 6am i approach the theater space. At the outside entrance sits a white 5 gallon bucket, upon which are inscribed the words: SLAVE BAIT. The bucket is filled with blood. Here, the blood represents the bodies and blood of African slaves, specifically the thousands thrown into the oceans and made shark chum during the middle passage. i commence to undress. i remove the elephant mask – revealing a face still shrouded with a black veil. i strip down, my naked body exposed, revealing American dollars and silk colonial flags (which i had privately stapled to my torso). The currency and flags are intended to be like receipts, or symbols of white ownership. As such, speaking to the black body as white property, it is an object tagged, branded (like a wild beast) and stigmatized throughout history; and now inherently bearing the scars/brands of racialized existence. Essentially I’m saying, my body does not belong to me. After removing all of my clothes, i bathe myself in the blood while repeatedly singing: I know I’ve been changed. The blood baptism is a statement to the role that religion (particularly Christianity and Islam) played in the institution of slavery and the subsequent construct of race. It also symbolizes the consecratory transformation of the black body, a body stripped of its human dignity to be made an enslaved object. Once my body is completely covered (in the blood) i enter the space, leaving the uniform hanging outside. In other words, i have addressed the body, now i must go inside and confront the soul.

How i Got Over:

A-Wake (Act iii): The black body suffers. The black BEing ruminates in its objectivity. Blackness is a middle passage…. Race is the vessel. Race is the slave ship. The dehumanized black body is transported/delivered (across the tides of history) into racialized existence. The bloody body lies in repose. i lay in a glass coffin upon a bed of cotton. The coffin represents the slave ship. However, it also symbolized the social construct of race as well as blackness itself. It is a statement to race as mere social construct (essentially perceived to be invisible, irrelevant or extraneous) yet objectively established nonetheless; hence inescapably and undeniably real. In this regard the audience represented the obsequious society – and the social relations that essentially reproduce and maintain the construct. It is the viewer that quietly observes (or simply tries to turn away and ignore), yet ultimately does nothing to alter or negate the actual construct. The glass, serving as a barrier between the body and the viewer, is also a representation of race as the block that inherently separates and alienates. The cotton was a symbol of commodification, labor and inescapable suffering. Inside the coffin there were a thousand swarming flies. The flies, again, spoke to the dehumanization of the black BEing, however, they also symbolized the ghost or spirits, of the blacks shameful past, that perpetually haunts him/her in the present. In this regard the flies were also meant to represent the spirits of those black bodies chained together (side by side) in the bottoms of slave ships. There was also a body camera around my neck. In addition to serving as a tool for documentation, the body camera was also a statement to police brutality and the present condition of the black body still under attack – still brutalized and preyed upon. As such the coffin also serves as a vitrine in which the brutalized black body has been placed on display. The coffin is guarded on both sides by 2 (helium) sharks. Again, the sharks – also symbolic of the great whites that followed the slave ships – represented the antagonistic white racist; and the white racist system that preys upon, and holds the black body under siege. Attached to the coffin were 2 long (6ft) chains, upon which were also attached an assortment of authentic shackles, neck irons and cowbells. These objects, just as the flies, symbolized the ghostly spirits of the many black bodies that had been forced to wear them. The shackles were also a statement on the industry/economy of slavery. Particularly, in this regard, that of Birmingham, England, which happened to be one of the main manufacturing centers for guns, chains and iron shackles produced for the African slave trade – of course this shameful history is, for the most part, quietly swept under the rug today. There was also a large mound of dirt placed at the foot of the coffin. On the mound, there sat an assortment of rotten fruits and vegetables – from which i would subsequently feast, upon exiting the coffin – in addition, there was a large crown (made of barbed wire), and another long black veil. The entire space was submerged in oceanic blue lighting, with a soundtrack layered with underwater ocean sounds and audio noise. Every hour point was marked with an audio signal comprised of auction bidding sounds, Wade in the Water (gospel hymn), and the chorus of A Milli (Lil Wayne).

It was a 12 hour journey

To Be Continued….

Lord of Flies: Coronation [Chapter iii, in the current series, The Blocks]

Originally written and posted November 18,2017