“I GOT YOU”

In my durational performance piece "I Got You," 2018, I use the powerful imagery of a black male embrace on a white pedestal as a form of protest and radical statement. The work was inspired by the mass removal of Confederate monuments and memorials in America and my reflections on the intersection of symbols, the black form, and a pedestal in a white space. The piece is a powerful meditation on American history, colonized spaces, and blackness, and it serves as a form of catharsis for myself and other black queer people who have similar internal struggles. The performance is not only a reflection on my own vulnerability and hypervisibility but also a call to action, inviting audiences to question and challenge the societal structures that oppress queer people of color. My use of the pedestal as a symbol of power and my reclamation of it by placing black bodies on it highlights the ongoing fight for equality and representation in spaces that were never meant for us.

Performed with Art in Odd Places (AiOP) 2021: NORMAL on the HIGHLINE. Performer Malcom-X Betts