Kameelah Janan Rasheed makes a grand entrance on the Californian art scene with her exhibition entitled “i want to climb inside every word and lick the salty neck of each letter“. This landmark event marks his return to his roots, hosted at REDCAT, the contemporary arts center located in the heart of CalArts, until August 11. Through her monochrome photographs, the American artist invites Californian audiences to plunge into the depths of her visual art.
Originally from East Palo Alto, California, a city with a long history of radical black politics and education, Kameelah Janan Rasheed is a multifaceted artist. A former children’s web designer, she is also a high school teacher and a self-taught researcher whose work explores diverse perspectives on the world.
Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s exhibition at the contemporary art center is a celebration of the multiple influences of her richly diverse interspecific, interspiritual and linguistic environment that have shaped her journey, from her explorations of nature reserves to her immersion in Catholic education and Islamic studies.
The American artist’s diverse background has given her a multitude of perspectives from which to apprehend the world around her, nurturing her text-based creativity. Her writings inspire audiences to read, learn and merge with language.
In her exhibition with the evocative title “i want to climb inside every word and lick the salty neck of each letter“, Kameelah Janan Rasheed visually explores the idea of appropriating and savoring language. Through videos showing her physically interacting with words, she echoes Audre Lorde’s vision of eroticism, seeing this fusion as a source of power and knowledge, rooted in sensation and the deep desire to be transcended by the experience itself.
At REDCAT, center for contemporary arts, the exhibition is enriched by unusual elements carefully combined to offer a unique experience of discovery to the Californian public. Kameelah Janan Rasheed incorporates natural materials from her family’s marshes into her creations, as well as a new series of photosensitive prints made using water from various locations, bringing an organic and immersive dimension to her artwork.
Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s exhibition “i want to climb inside every word and lick the salty neck of each letter” offers a nod to her deep interest in language through an immersive constellation of letters, words, moving images, body gestures, rituals and sounds. This installation engages the eroticism of reading and writing, transcending the limits of linguistic description to offer a rich sensory and intellectual experience.
By staging experimental conversations between literary and artistic figures such as Clarice Lispector, Roland Barthes, Harryette Mullen and Pope.L, the exhibition explores the intimacies, desires and frustrations of using language to communicate experiences and memories. These scholarly exchanges enrich the audience’s experience and open up new perspectives on the power of language.
With her unusual assemblage of familiar materials drawn from personal experience, Kameelah Janan Rasheed guides the public towards an unprecedented reflection on their immediate environment. Her singular artistic approach proves to be a genuine invitation to explore new perspectives and engage in deep reflection on the world around us.
