Black Space, White Walls
In wishing to communicate the totality of Blackness, Reconstructions forgoes the tools and signifiers of conventional architectural production in favor of world building.
Olalekan Jeyifous, Photomontage 4-Plant Seeds, Grow Blessings: BKLYN Interfaith Seed Vault, 2020. Courtesy the Museum of Modern Art, New York
Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America was on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from February 27 to May 31, 2021.
After several delays, the much-anticipated Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America finally opened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York on February 27. I visited the show the following day, excited to see the work of folx who have inspired my own architectural thinking. Upon entering the gallery, a pleasant white parent cheerfully turned to their pleasant white child as they left and said, “I really liked this exhibit! A LOT!” I thought to myself, what aspect of the legacy of racial and environmental injustice, or its presentation in a museum long criticized for its exclusionary practices toward people of color, could have prompted such a rosy response?
The show is MoMA’s first candid attempt to address the complex and often lachrymose relationship between race and architecture. Organized by associate curator Sean Anderson and architect and historian Mabel O. Wilson, it asked ten…
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