JEROME AB
At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing, 2021

4-channel video, brushed aluminum, found
debris, sound, 8’ x 12’H
Video: 07:49 min
Score: 20:00 min
Director of Photography: Maddy Talias
Gaffer: John Izaparte
Video Editor: Matthew Delatorre
Sound design: Killian Brom with support by
Brian Bryne
Vocals: Eartheater
Strings: Jasminfire
Movement performed by Morgan Bobrow-
Williams and Quenton Stuckey
Shot at Greenwood Studios, Brooklyn, NY

 

Jerome AB’s At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing (2021) is a mixed-media installation, movement video, and soundscape.

A case study in surrender, the work consists of an artifact, once buried beneath compounded terrain, now displayed within the museum walls. Its provenance unaccounted for, the 12’ high metal structure operates like a time capsule, nestled in excavated ground.

Inside the enclosure is a three-dimensional video file, attempting to relay a psychological unraveling captured in real time. Past glitches of lapsed memories, the video’s subject comes to a road diverged.

In one instance, we can choose to find comfort in the cards we have been dealt, to live life on life’s terms. In another, our circumstances can feel like they are closing in on us, with the only option left to fight.

What starts as one figure, splits, and fragments into a multiplicity of being. At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing explores the existence of two seemingly opposing truths that can co-exist as one reality.

 

Set to a deteriorating meditative score, a self-help spiral featuring multi-instrumentalists Eartheater and Jasminfire, AB’s At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing explores what it means to relinquish control and to find courage in faith.

 

Jerome AB’s At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing is organized by Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) as
part of Toby’s Prize.

 

1/30-6/5/2022

 

Jerome AB

Masculine Ken on the Secret We Share, 2018

With spoken word by Precious Okoyomon, illustrations by Neil Gilks and Katie Armstrong

In an attempt to heal, Ken loses his digital self in a maddening research spell on stigmas around mental illnesses, inflicted upon/within ourselves in poc communities and by the other; ~white professionals~ resting on the laurels of institutionalized racism, to sift through the truths found in the misinformation of overstimulation, toxic masculinity, prayer and balance.

Length: 14:30

 

 

#MASCULINEKEN is an ongoing performative series featuring an expressionless humanoid character of unintelligible African origins portrayed by Jerome AB and extensions thereof, all dubbed Masculine Ken. In these pieces, Masculine Ken observes and confronts various psychological defense mechanisms, processes and falsified intrapersonal realities defined by (in)human(e) exchanges through movement and visual audio manipulation.

 

 

Masculine Ken on the Secret We Share v.3 was presented as a short film curated by Alima Lee for the Women’s Center of Creative Work’s ‘Films For Escapism‘ series in response to the first Covid-19 lockdown of 2020. The series also included films by Featuring works by Sarah Nicole Francois, summer fucking mason and Rhea Dillon.

 

Masculine Ken on the Secret We Share v.2 was presented as a live performance and screening at Navel in Los Angeles as commissioned for the 2018 Queer Biennial.

 

Masculine Ken on the Secret We Share v.1 was presented as a live performance in a storefront window on Sept 27, 2017 at Catinca Tabacaru Gallery in New York City.

Jerome AB

Sebastian, Tell Aware

A performance conceived by Jerome AB through the Otion Front Studio Artist-in-Residence program during the month of May.
‘Sebastian, Tell Aware’ is an exploration into the reversal of one’s dependence on the grief behind, before and after the death of a loved one.
This performance functioned as a five-part play, a mental map framed by the five stages of grief.

 

Dedicated to Sebastian Bwire, who deserved better from the American health care system.

 

Performed on June 1, 2017 at Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn, NY by:
Kellian Delice … The Doctor
DeVonn Francis … The Son
Aarron Ricks … The Sibling
Tara-Jo Tashna … The Mother
& Jerome AB … The Patient

 

Greg Fox … Drums
Caleb Kruzel … Vocals
Adam Markiewicz … Violin
Precious Okoyomon … Spoken Word

 

Costumes by Merritt Meacham
Portraiture by Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.

Scorpions

_was a two-hour durational performance by Vincent Tiley in collaboration with Chris Habana, performed by Jerome AB, Forrest Wu and Ash Yergens as part of the Kinetic Intimacies exhibition at the Museum of Art and Design in May 2017

 

Footage and photos courtesy of Bryson Rand as featured in Out Magazine