The Block is Hot (left),
I, Used to Be XV- XVII (center),
A Wise Head Keeps A Still Tongue (right)
"Emancipation: the Unfinished Project of Liberation" was a museum exhibition that invited seven Black artists to respond to John Quincy Adams Ward's sculpture "Freedman." Meris presented a selection of works from his series Now You See Me, Now You Don't. These sculptures are inspired by a fine that he was falsely ticketed for fare evasion on the MTA. On the ticket, his height was recorded as 6'7 (200 cm) and his weighed 250 lbs (113 kg). Meris is 6'2 (188cm) and 185 lbs (84 kg). In court, everyone looked like him, all being Black and Brown. This work asks what systems of in/visibility make these violent policing strategies and systems of inequity possible? The kinetic sculptures slowly self-disintegrate, allowing the white plaster reproductions of his likeness to be freed from the hegemonic gaze. Meris employs roofing paper and double-sided tape to make I, Used to Be (series) drawings. The exhibition originated at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX, and traveled to several other venues, including the Newcomb Museum of Art, the Williams College Museum of Art, and the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, all cities with a significant stake in African enslavement.
The Block is Hot, 2020, 96" * 66" * 32", plaster body cast, AC motor, steel, concrete blocks, aircraft cable, U link, pulleys, ratchet
Now You See Me; Now You Don't (Installation View), 2020, plaster body cast, AC motor, steel, various found objects, various dimensions
In Now You See Me; Now You Don’t, seven plaster replicas of Meris’
disjointed body each kinetically destroy themselves over perforated sheet metal. These ‘body-doubles’ are vessels of the violence of racial interpellation; they represent his inability to control the way that his body reads in space. Now You See Me; Now You Don’t grounds itself in Ralph Ellison’s epic novel: Invisible Man, specifically in his employment of white plaster surrogates of his body that nod to Mr. Kimrbo quotes such as “keep America Pure” and “If It’s optic white, It’s the right white.”
disjointed body each kinetically destroy themselves over perforated sheet metal. These ‘body-doubles’ are vessels of the violence of racial interpellation; they represent his inability to control the way that his body reads in space. Now You See Me; Now You Don’t grounds itself in Ralph Ellison’s epic novel: Invisible Man, specifically in his employment of white plaster surrogates of his body that nod to Mr. Kimrbo quotes such as “keep America Pure” and “If It’s optic white, It’s the right white.”
A still tongue keeps a wise head, 2024, ac motor, stainless steel, t-slot aluminum extrusions, plaster, walker, various dimensions
A still tongue keeps a wise head (detail), 2024, ac motor, stainless steel, t-slot aluminum extrusions, plaster, walker, various dimensions
Tét Chaje, 2023, galvanized steel, hydrocal, ac motor, hardware, light fixtures, epoxy resin, various dimensions
High Heel, 2021, steel, plaster, walker, hand-crank, various dimensions