An exhibition of work by Haitian – American artist Dominique Duroseau If only we knew. Nothing’s new is at the women’s arts collective A.I.R. Gallery, in DUMBO, Brooklyn from April 20 – May 20, 2018.
Dominique Duroseau
Duroseau is a Haitian – American interdisciplinary artist. She was born in Chicago, raised in Haiti, and currently lives and works in Newark, New Jersey.
Her work explores themes of racism, socio-cultural issues, and existential dehumanization.
Duroseau earned a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the New Jersey School of Architecture. She earned her MFA from Kean University in New Jersey.
She has exhibited or performed at galleries and museums across metropolitan New York City including at The Kitchen, The Brooklyn Museum, and El Museo del Barrio.
Duroseau has spoken at the Black Portraiture[s] Conference at Harvard University and at Vassar College, the women’s liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York.
She has earned residencies from Gallery Aferro, Index Art Center, and The Wassaic Project. Duroseau is currently an A.I.R. Gallery fellow.
Existential Dehumanization
[This is an opinion of the writer, not the artist.]
This is an interesting idea. Dehumanization is a means of control. It is one of the ways that a small elite controls a large group of people. It is used in slavery, colonialism, politics, religion, the military, and even gender relations.
One of the side effects of dehumanization is that it flows both ways. In order to kill someone or blame them for your own problems, you have to dehumanize them first. But to pull the trigger, you also have to dehumanize yourself.
This is not natural to humanity. In the hunter-gatherer lifestyle which was the norm for most of humanity’s existence, individual’s mostly took care of themselves with a little collaboration. Only with the dawn of the farming culture of “civilization” did elites emerge and begin to separate themselves from the “other.”
Slavery was once common in every culture, in every part of the world. Slavery remains America’s original sin. 150 years, seven generations, after the official end of slavery in the United States, we still haven’t processed this, and it is deviling us now.
Some say that the entire country of Haiti has long been punished for being the place of the first successful slave revolt in the Americas. What do I know? But I suspect there is some truth to that.
As a Black American woman raised in Haiti, Duroseau has some interesting things to say about dehumanization. I suspect it was getting an education that enabled her to rise above imposed socio-cultural limitations and add her unique voice to the American story. Education is the way forward for our communities.
Duroseau deconstructs the contrast between Black and White experience in our country. We may not want to face our own inhumanity, but on the other side of that lies true freedom.
Dominique Duroseau If only we knew. Nothing’s new
Dominique Duroseau If only we knew. Nothing’s new is at the women’s arts collective A.I.R. Gallery, in DUMBO, Brooklyn from April 20 – May 20, 2018.
Opening Reception
The exhibition opens with a reception on Friday, April 20, 2018 from 6 – 8 pm.
Art Walk
The exhibition is part of DUMBO’s First Thursday Art Walk on Thursday, May 3, 2018 from 6 – 8 pm.
A.I.R. Gallery
155 Plymouth St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
(at Jay St)
DUMBO, Brooklyn
(212) 255-6651
Wednesday – Sunday: 12 noon – 6 pm
A.I.R Gallery is a women’s arts collective that was founded in 1972.
Subway
- (F) to York St
- (A) (C) to High St – Brooklyn Bridge
For more information, visit www.airgallery.org
