Brooklyn artist DonChristian Jones' latest exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art PS1 is a mise en scène installation that’s a deep gaze into the hybrid life of an activist and artist.
The exhibit Sumptuous Discovery of Gotham a Go-Go is inspired by Public Assistants, Jones' design and production studio in Bedford Stuyvesant. The community space, which originally launched in 2020 in a former laundromat on Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights, works as a mutual aid society and appeared at a moment when the world felt small, repressive and bleak during the heat of the George Floyd murder and the urgency of the Black Lives Matter protests, the artist said.
Public Assistants also sprouted as a vehicle to support and aid LGBTQ and trans women of color to create and live out loud.
"We put out calls to community in the forms of murals and surveys and invited people and asked them, what were their hopes, dreams, desires for their neighborhood," Jones told BK Reader about the origins of the space. "And that's how we came up with the bike program, the garden, the fridge and the mural program for youth in the summer at Public Assistance. They were responses in a hyperlocal space and time."
At first glance, the MoMA installation resembles a retro-future office and lounge that is straight out of the TV show Severance (HBO), with a large, neoclassic couch that begs you to have a meeting with a corporate executive. The curation is chock full of materials that have impacted Jones' artistic practice: there are paintings, photographs, music videos, event posters, performances, radio shows and a black-and-white picture of Jones' uncle, the late soul music icon Teddy Pendergrass.
The melange of curious objects includes a small sculpture of a Chinese man wearing a red Hanfu, a classic clothing of the Han Chinese, emblazoned with the Public Assistants logo and holding a hardcover copy of the book All About Love by Bell Hooks.
In a vertical bookcase, binders are filled with personal sketches and musings ranging from a treatise on storytelling, to a series of statements and musings written on diner guest checks that were created specifically for the exhibition.
The artist's work is rooted in community, care and collaboration, but Jones, who uses the pronoun they, also said their father, who passed away in February 2024, was a large influence.
"He always told me there's no such thing as a coincidence. You gotta connect the dots of all these seemingly disparate nodes of community that have inspired me and made me who I am, and see where they tether," they said.
Jones' father is thoughtfully represented in the exhibit: there's a handwritten list of gang members from his work as a private investigator and several candid photos, including a Polaroid where he’s giving Black James Bond vibes while holding a pistol.
Vinyl records from Art Blakey, Luther Vandross and John Coltrane, are scattered around a record player, doubling as design elements, and Performance Installation Assistant Ky'Naisha Severe takes record requests.
MoMa PS1 Assistant Curator Elena Ketelsen González said designing and reconstructing Jones' studio outpost in a museum setting was a huge, fun challenge.
"We really strive to push the boundaries of what artwork can look like, what a museum can hold and offer to community, how accessible can you make artworks, and it's just been amazing to work with the production and curatorial team there to bring the exhibition to life and invite more new people to PS1," she said.
Jones and his exhibit are a celebration of identity and community and it brings a lot of Brooklyn energy to Long Island City, Queens.
For more information on the exhibit Sumptuous Discovery of Gotham a Go-Go, on display now through April 28, click here. To donate to Public Assistants, click here.
