Review: A dark cloud cannot rain on photographer Tyler Mitchell’s dreams

Credit: Photo by Tyler Mitchell

Credit: Photo by Tyler Mitchell

A year later, he was named a Gordon Parks Foundation fellow, which culminated in a solo exhibition at the foundation’s gallery space in upstate New York.

Despite this national acclaim, Mitchell has remained keenly attached to his Georgia roots.

This is why “Tyler Mitchell: Idyllic Space,” the High Museum of Art’s first major solo exhibit of Mitchell’s work (through December 1), is a true homecoming for the young African American artist. It bespeaks his experience of growing up in the American South and demonstrates how it has shaped his personal identity and informed his art.

Taken together, the show encompasses more than 30 photographs that consider a new aesthetic of Blackness rooted in a Black utopia. In his monograph published in 2020, “I Can Make You Feel Good,” Mitchell expresses his desire to “visualize Black people as free, expressive, effortless and sensitive.”

Photography has the potential, he says, to allow him “to dream and make that dream become very real.” This is especially well-rendered in his Southern Landscape series, which opens the exhibit. The selected images have an ethereal appearance, a feel of innocence and playfulness on the surface.

In the cinematic image “Vastness” (2022), Black friends and family fan out across the frame, leisurely enjoying a day on a sand dune. A young man stands in the middle, his oversized shirt stretched out playfully by two young children.

In “Riverside Scene,” Mitchell makes a pastiche of the famous painting by French impressionist Georges Seurat, “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” (1884), by reinterpreting the scene with an all-Black cast.

Yet, for all the dreamlike quality of these images, there is an undercurrent of uneasiness that comes with the knowledge that African Americans were historically denied access to the outdoors and that the pleasures of nature were the chasse gardée (preserve) of Whites.

The artist is well aware that landscape photography has long been a field dominated by white photographers and he unapologetically reclaims this legacy. In “Georgia Hillside (Red Lining),” Mitchell makes the case even more forcefully by drawing red lines on green spaces where Black people relax and play, referencing the histories of redlining in the state. With this simple yet powerful intervention, he reaffirms the right of people of color to enjoy the land.

Credit: Photo by Tyler Mitchell

Credit: Photo by Tyler Mitchell

The exhibit also features “Idyllic Space,” the single-channel video installation with sound, turf grass and faux white picket fences that expand on Mitchell’s intention to render seemingly idyllic scenes. The slow-motion video, projected on the ceiling, invites viewers to contemplate scenes of young Black people enjoying simple pleasures, such as eating ice cream, swinging on swings or swimming in pools. The innocence at play has an undertone of disquiet in light of enduring racial violence in the United States.

Further down the gallery, Mitchell examines themes of masculinity, motherhood and family, loosely juxtaposing formal fashion portraiture with more personal work. This is the case for “Altar VII (Repose),” a three-dimensional panel structure specially created for the exhibit.

It features more than 20 Atlanta-area families who are members of Jack and Jill of America. In his youth, Mitchell participated in this organization, which fosters leadership development for young African Americans. Included in the installation is a portrait of the artist himself with his family.

The portraits are very classic in nature — family members standing together in their home environment — and although the installation is intriguing, the visual experience falls flat.

Similarly, “The Hewitt Family” (2021), an assemblage of photographic prints on an old mirror acquired by the High Museum, which inspired Mitchell’s exhibit, is perplexing. It depicts Denise, the eldest daughter of the Hewitt family, and addresses “the representation of Black real estate ownership and the pride in one’s domestic space.” The family portraits — people standing as a group, sitting formally or playfully on a coach — feel inconsequential, and the way these small images sit on the four corners of the mirror makes the work even more cryptic.

But for all the gravitas of some of his images, there is also a playful side to his work and personality. Adjacent to the museum’s atrium and alongside the exhibition, Mitchell installed a meandering rope clothesline that zigzags across the hallway, reminiscent of a similar installation he did at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah last winter.

Hanging loosely from the clothesline are images of models printed on sheer fabrics, interspersed with towels and socks along the way. On a side wall, a few books on photography and photographers’ work that have inspired him are lined up and accessible for browsing by museum guests.

This installation represents Mitchell’s desire to disrupt the formality of the framed photograph and to experience his art in a spontaneous way. It is well executed and allows visitors to leave the exhibit on a light note, visually refreshed and ready to take in another hot summer day in Atlanta.

ART REVIEW

“Tyler Mitchell: Idyllic Space”

At High Museum of Art through December 1. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. $23.50. 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-733-4400, high.org

Credit: ArtsATL

Credit: ArtsATL

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