Mule, 2006
8mm digitally transferred and edited

Pinder’s portrayal of the black body at work, under distress, and moving through pain and exhaustion constitutes an act of resistance and social commentary. As Pinder states, “I portray the black body both frenetically and through drudgery in order to convey relevant cultural experiences.”

Mule is about resistance. Pulling a three hundred pound log encrusted with pressed tin becomes a metaphor for struggle. In this performance piece, forward progress on an inner city street proves near impossible. The object that Pinder moves has been weathered by time and dissected from deteriorating Baltimore homes. The artist literally pulls the wreckage of past generations. In a struggle to move forward, every ounce of energy is utilized to create momentum. Like a mule, Pinder acts as a beast-of-burden, not focusing on the end, rather pushing forward with blinders, his labor amounting to a pure meditation of what has come before and what lies ahead.

Above: Kasiem Walters performing Zulu Sign Language at Virginia Tech’s Moss Arts Center

February marked the opportunity to travel to Blacksburg, VA with my collaborator Kasiem Walters in order to work through a new piece at Virginia Tech’s Moss Arts Center.

A project I’ve been developing over the past 6 years, Zulu Sign Language, considers the complex hybrid of politics and movement within sign language.The work originates from Thamsanqa Jantjie, the ‘fake’ sign language interpreter who performed at the Nelson Mandela Memorial service and unintentionally shed light on corruption in South Africa and the disenfranchisement of the deaf community.

The jibberish signing was loosely titled Zulu Sign Language by the former president, Jacob Zuma. When confronted with his administration’s handling of the hiring of Jantjie, President Zuma took the insult a step further and then coined the fake signs as ‘Zulu-Sign Language’. Since then, I've been on a journey to understand what Black nationalism looks like in the body, through the tradition of sign. Kasiem, a truly gifted performer, is helping realize the work with power and integrity.

Video documentation of a studio performance of the piece is forthcoming.

Pinder, Walters and audio engineer Josh Spelman-Hall workshopping the performance backstage