Pope.L
American, 1955–2023
Three Projects, Catherine Bastide gallery, Brussels, 2012, exhibition view
Obituary, Text Zur Kunst Magazine, June 2024
For his first show at the gallery, I had to hire someone just to keep up with the 700 production emails from his team in Maine and his studio at the University of Chicago.(1) Every exhibition was like a play he directed, drawing on his theater and performance background, with elements of decor and a strong collaborative process. Working with Pope.L was like being part of orchestrated team- work, led by a working-class poet-director.(2)
He made the process seem chaotic, but he was always paying attention to every person and detail, sketching every installation, sculpture, or project, then asking for a lot of reassurance in terms of execution. Occasionally, he would act clueless, only to surprise us later with his sharp intelligence and a grand vision that brought everything to life, more coherent and bigger than any of us had previously imagined.
Our shows together were more subdued compared to the performance-heavy projects he would later become known for, like those at “documenta 14,” the Whitney Museum of Art, or MoMA. This first exhibition, in particular, resembled an intimate portrayal of childhood, featuring an arsenal of unconventional materials: a monument in a fish tank with black-and-white fish, drawings at a child’s eye level, two Pepto-Bismol fountains, several baby-changing stations, and his film Pierce (2004–08), which consists of black-and-white archival footage of 19th-century domestic scenes from a white upper-class family (Pope.L playing the son), partly superimposed with drawings of African masks. It was a sober yet eye-opening show.
Pope.L’s generosity, enigma, and wit took center stage, combined with a sense of humor. He never explained everything, leaving parts of his reasoning veiled in poetic mystery. Pope.L’s knack for challenging our views on politics and art was fueled by an incredible capacity to listen and an insatiable curiosity. By gathering vast amounts of information and distilling it to its essence, he created compelling exhibitions. Radically honest, he always trusted his instincts; it was all deeply personal for him.
Last but not least, his talent for fabulation was unmatched. He crafted creative lies with ease – another thing that made him a great artist. Below is the press release he wrote for the aforementioned 2008 show, pretending to be his father.
Dear Gallery Goer,
This is a press release for the first exhibi-
tion of art work by my son, William Pope.L,
at Catherine Bastide Gallery in Brussels,
Belgium.
The works in this exhibition borrow from
many media: pink liquid antacid, changing
stations, miniatures of monuments to the
future, mattresses, children’s clothing, fish
tanks, drawings and video. Most of the work
was made in 2008 but a few special works date
from 1998 and 2002.
The theme of the exhibition is not innocence.
The theme is my son’s lack of trust. It could
only be this because even as a child he was a
gnasher and a biter. He was a gnasher and a
biter then and he is a gnasher and a biter now.
Ask his mother. Yes, people, like my son, have
a difficult time with purity.
For example, my son believes that ideas
such as “childhood” and “future” are
sentimentalized. He believes that we valorize
these concepts by emptying them of uncer-
tainty. He believes the real power of these
ideas are their inherent emptiness, not the
emptiness we impose. The emptiness we
impose is cheap, polite, and apolitical.
I do not agree with my son but he is my son
and so I recommend him without reservation.
William Pope, father of the artist
Chicago, Illinois, USA
January 21, 2008
For anyone who knew him, Pope.L’s personality shines through unmistakably in these words.
Catherine Bastide
Notes
(1) “Pope.L: Biting Through Innocence,” Catherine Bastide Gallery, Brussels, April 11–May 24, 2008.
(2) I would like to express my gratitude to the team who worked with Pope.L on the production of the three exhibitions at the gallery: Cédric Alby, Fabio Balducci, Nick Bastis, Nicolas Bourthoumieux, Lucille Cocito, Marie de Gaulejac, Amélie Laplanche, Laurent Mignon, Gijs Milius, Marc Pérennès, and Mona Pouillon.
Pope.L is a visual artist and educator whose multidisciplinary practice uses binaries, contraries and preconceived notions embedded within contemporary culture to create art works in various formats, for example, writing, painting, performance, installation, video and sculpture. Building upon his long history of enacting arduous, provocative, absurdist performances and interventions in public spaces, Pope.L applies some of the same social, formal and performative strategies to his interests in language, system, gender, race and community. The goals for his work are several: joy, money and uncertainty— not necessarily in that order.
Pope.L began his career in the 1970s, creating works that find their foothold in personal travail, reading philosophy, and performance and theatre training with Geoff Hendricks and Mabous Mines. He studied at Pratt Institute and later received his BA from Montclair State College in 1978. He also attended the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art before earning his MFA from Rutgers University in 1981. His first performances occurred on the street, and later at major and historic venues, such as Anthology Film Archives, Franklin Furnace, Just Above Midtown, Museum of Modern Art, New Museum, Performa, The Sculpture Center, and the 2002 Whitney Biennial in New York; MIT and Mobius in Boston; MOCA Los Angeles; Shinjuku Station in Tokyo; Diverse Works in Houston; Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead Quays, UK; Prospect.2 in New Orleans; Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and CAM Houston, among others. Major performances include Baile (2016); The Problem (2016); Pull(2013); The Black Factory national tour (2002–2009); The Great White Way (2001–2002); Community Crawls (2000–2005); Eating the Wall Street Journal (2000); Black Domestic aka Roach Motel Black (1994); How Much is that Nigger in the Window(1990-1992); Times Square Crawl (1978); and Thunderbird Immolation (1978).
Portrait: Photo © Grant Delin
Selected Works
Exhibitions at the gallery
