Howardena Pindell. Rope/Fire/Water

Thirty years in the making, Pindell’s titular project is presented in a beautiful clothbound volume Since the beginning of her creative career in the 1970s, American artist and curator Howardena Pindell (born 1943) has been planning the titular film at the core of this volume. The film, an examination of the history of lynching and state-sanctioned violence in the United States, is placed in conversation with a selection of abstract and thematic paintings from Pindell’s oeuvre, highlighting the dichotomy between these two elements of her work. Supplementary texts explore the trajectory of Pindell’s career at large and her guiding principles of empathy and self-care. An interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist discusses an early conversation with the artist about the exhibition’s film; another interview conducted by Guggenheim curator Ashley James discusses both the exhibition as well as Pindell’s career as one of the first Black curators at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.