David Hammons: Phat Free

“I walked and walked till I wore out my shoes. I can’t walk no further, yonder come the blues”

— Ma Rainey

Exhibition coordination and text: Yazın Öztürk
Exhibition design: Bülent Erkmen
Venue: Ariel, Riverrun (Istanbul/Turkey)
Dates: 21.11.2019 – 11.01.2020

Phat Free (1995/1999) 
Video, 5’ 5’’, color, sound 

Loaned by Collection S.M.A.K. 
Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium.

Ariel is delighted to present the only video work by Afro-American artist, David Hammons, titled Phat Free. Based on his performance in the streets of New York in 1995, the footage was later edited to be exhibited at the 1997 Whitney Biennial. 

Since the mid-1960s, the artist has been producing his works through his experiences in the streets while mainly addressing racial issues, poverty, and cultural stereotypes. Phat Free starts off with a series of discontinuous loud metallic sounds on a black screen. Hammons, later on, reveals himself wearing a long coat and a hat, kicking a metal bucket late at night, in a blur of low-light with a grainy texture. While Hammons’ kicks take on a pattern, the discontinuous sound evolves into an almost musical soundscape. Conjuring the improvisational nature of jazz, the dialect of the 80’s Afro-American community with the word ‘phat’, and the streetwise lyricism of rap, Phat Free works as a symphonic metaphor for the contemporary black urban experience.

Phat Free is the first exhibited work of David Hammons in Turkey.