MOCA Focus
Sheldon Scott

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Portrait, number 1 man (day clean ta sun down)
Extract: 3 min 18 second 
Performance with rice and HD video (approx.13 hours), 2019
Cinematographer: Jon-Sesrie Goff
Composer: Tamar-Kali


​The performance follows the prolonged working hours of the enslaved people in coastal regions of the pre-Civil War South. In Scott’s own words: “From sun up until sun down, the body will hull and winnow rice grains, then place the hulled grains, one by one, on a tomb-like vessel lined with burlap until the weight and value of the vessel equals that of the body laboring to fill it. This rhythmic, inane process will communicate the transactional and the incalculable.”

Scott’s work addresses themes of race, economics, and sexuality, with a focus on the Black male experience.
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Courtesy ConnerSmith Gallery 

For further reading::
www.portraitcompetition.si.edu/exhibition/2019-outwin-boochever-portrait-competition/portrait-no-1-man?lang=eng
www.washingtonian.com/2019/11/01/this-weekend-a-dc-artist-will-hull-rice-from-sunrise-to-sunset/
www.coolhunting.com/culture/interview-sheldon-scott-performed-portrait/
www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/performance-artist-sheldon-scott-to
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www.sheldonscottstudios.com

www.connersmith.us.com/artists/sheldon-scott