RECONSTRUCTIONS PORTRAIT: J. Yolande Daniels on The Enduring Problem of Segregation
๐๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ค๐ค๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ ๐๐ณ๐ต, ๐๐๐โ๐๐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ด๐ต ๐๐ข๐ท๐ช๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธโ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ด, ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ด, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐จ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ค๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ฏ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ธ๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฑ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต (๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ). ๐๐๐โ๐๐โ๐ด ๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ข๐ท๐ข๐ช๐ญ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ. ๐ ๐๐๐โ๐๐ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฆ.
J. Yolande Daniels is a founding principal of the bi-coastal studioSUMO and an Assistant Professor at USC School of Architecture in Los Angeles. Bridging practice with architectureโs more intangible aspects, Daniels works across sites, scales, and media, always with a firm research-driven foundation.
PINโUP: What led you to architecture?
J. Yolande Daniels: I didnโt grow up in an environment with architects and I came to architecture in a roundabout way. My initial interest was in art โ I grew up making things, drawing, and painting. I assumed I would be an artist or a writer. In college, I explored an array of subjects as my parents were losing patience with me. Eventually, after random encounters with a young architect on a job site where I was assisting my father who was a paint contractor, and a visit to the architecture school at Howard University with my family while moving my sister in, I began to consider architecture. I had the impression of architecture as both science and art, a discipline that combined many of my interests, including writing.
How has your practice evolved?
My independent practice began while I was in graduate school. Then six years later, in 1996, I received two back-to-back Whitney Museum fellowships in studio art and critical studies in their Independent Study Program. While there, I began to establish a creative practice that combined my interests and that served as a template for addressing issues of race, gender, and other forms of subordination as critical concerns in architecture. In the late 1990s, I developed a model for my independent practice that applies methodologies from other disciplines to address blind spots in architecture surrounding domination, diversity, and control of the built environment. In addition to independent design, research, and writing, since 1995 my practice with Sunil Bald has been involved with a combination of work at different scales in the public realm on everything from architecture installations, graphics, and exhibition design to interior design, housing, and institutional buildings. Our practice is non-linear and, with my move to Los Angeles, it is currently bi-coastal.
What does โreconstructionsโ mean to you? Both as the title of the show and as a historical or contemporary reference?
Reconstruction first refers to the period after the emancipation of African Americans who had been โenslaved in perpetuity.โ To the hopes and beliefs of many upon emancipation, this also represented the promise of citizenship and the ability to build homesteads and communities and establish self-governance. Reconstruction refers to the thousands of African-American governmental officers elected and appointed nationwide and the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 โ which was repealed in 1883 as state rule, Black Codes, segregation laws, and the violent repression of African-Americans through rape and lynching were enforced. Reconstruction also refers to the aftermath of the Civil War and the reconstruction of the power held over Southern states through the redistribution of wealth from the South to the North, and the bargain made between them to enforce the supremacy of the white population. I get stuck on the โin perpetuityโ aspect of slavery: what arrogance and effort is required to suppress a people to such a degree that the effects continue to shape lives in 2020?
Can you describe the project you are creating in response to the MoMA Reconstructions brief? Where is it and why did you choose that location?
In August 2019, I moved to Los Angeles, so the Reconstructions exhibition gave me the opportunity to further a body of research and explore a new city in depth. In previous research on the Black city and in seminars at Columbia University, Iโd already begun to examine L.A. In comparison to the segregated northern and southern cities that I examined, turn-of-the-millennium Los Angeles seemed like an outlier โ current demographic maps indicate that it is one of the most diverse and most segregated American Cities. The history of Los Angeles is one of multi-hued migrants. It is also a history of land grabs and the decimation of native populations. Taking the form of a 3D atlas, black city: the Los Angeles edition explores and documents Black settlement in Los Angeles from its founding, examining spatial subordination through patterns of disinvestment and the development of majority-Black cities in the late 20th century, and, re-investment and the re-emergence of majority-minority cities and states in the 21st century. Research into Black settlement in Los Angeles yields historic eventscapes of customs, policies, and laws, as well as narratives of Black community-building efforts at every stage of development, from the founding of the Pueblo de los รngeles by the Spanish, in 1781, through Californiaโs statehood in the United States of America in 1850 to the present day. The project builds upon a body of work โ principally the urban analysis, black city โ that explores the elision of the representational tropes of โBlacknessโ on the lives and spaces of African Americans. The research is realized as extended footnotes in the form of a dictionary that catalogues and defines relevant concepts, a city-specific glossary that is structured around stories of Black settlement in Los Angeles.
Interview by Drew Zeiba
Video portrait by David Hartt
Editing by Jessica Lin
Music by King Britt presents Moksha Black
A PINโUP production in partnership with Thom Browne
This video is part of a series of ten portraits David Hartt created for PINโUP on the occasion of Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America at the Museum of Art (Feb 20โMay 31, 2021), curated by Mabel O. Wilson and Sean Anderson. The portraits were also published in the print edition of PINโUP 29.