Tracey Rose
The Black Paintings: Dead White Man (2012)
The video was originally intended as a live performance piece and is titled after Francisco Goya's series of fourteen murals, The Black Paintings, which were originally installed in his house ‘Quinta del Sordo’ (Deaf Man's Villa) and are now housed in a chapel-like room at the Museo El Prado in Madrid, whose holdings of artworks originated with the collections of the Kings of Spain and the wealth from the Spanish empire.
The work is a tribute to the many figures who have had the potential to institute lasting and significant changes in society before their assassinations. Many of the figures whose names she chants were progressive politicians, thinkers and independence fighters in African nations and the diaspora who were victims of colonial or state killings by Global Northern powers. In the mantra which Rose repeats throughout the work the word ‘white’ is written 800 times.