Keith+Washington

=Keith Morris Washington=


 * Within our Gates**

//Comments by Mark Auslander:// This extraordinary series of paintings emerges out of a long history of pain and loss, while also evoking the redemptive, spiritual and healing dimensions of trees and sacred groves. In his large canvases and associated wall texts, Washington interrogates pastoral scenes in which lynchings occurred; his groves open up unexpected fissures in time, hinting at the presence of bodies and ruptures beyond our immediate perception. Our attention is repeatedly called to the sacrificial dimensions of many lynchings. The body of the tortured victim was often used by the killers and the witnessing crowds as an instrument of ritual purification and expiation, enabling communion and solidarity among whites as the over-arching racial order was celebrated and reproduced. The vital greens of Washington’s lush landscapes lure us in, as if to a long-lost home, while forcing us to recollect the public crimes so long committed and tolerated “within our gates.”