ABSTRACT
The prospect of a funky mind—thinking as an opening to new possibilities—is suggestive of the “conceptual-type art” coincidentally emerging at this same historical moment. In the 1976 Artforum essay, “The Anti-Photographers,” Nancy Foote examined photography’s integral roles in “conceptual-type art”. As African American artists created systems, riffed on formulae, played with language, and examined the nature of representation—many of conceptual art’s hallmarks—their identities traveled alongside. Against dematerialization, the supposed neutrality of systems, actions that could be performed by anyone, and photographs as documentation—yet more hallmarks of conceptual art—there was blackness in myriad forms: unwieldy, confounding, subtle, confrontational, poetic, and on another level. Insofar as “funky” suggests creativity at the margins, black artists making “conceptual-type art” were definitely funky. Works like Lorna Simpson’s Plaques include touchstones of “conceptual-type art,” exploring the relationship between text, sign, and making meaning through a bittersweet take on a childhood game often played to resolve ties or decide who goes first.
