Two Videos by Terry Adkins: Flumen Orationis and Synapse

About the Exhibit

From the 1970s until his death in 2014, Terry Adkins created a groundbreaking body of work
that remains hugely influential and widely acclaimed. Blending sculpture, sound, performance, printmaking, and video, Adkins’ interdisciplinary practice explores history, memory, and identity
— often taking the canon of African American culture as his starting point. The Blanton will be
exhibiting two works by Adkins as part of this exhibition.

Flumen Orationis (2012) will be screened in the Film & Video Gallery. In this work Adkins has
created a filmic montage of historical stereographic photographs of hot air balloons, blimps, and
other airships. These images are set to audio clips featuring Martin Luther King’s 1967 anti-
Vietnam War speech, “Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam,” and seminal rock guitarist
Jimi Hendrix’s 1970 performance of “Machine Gun” from his Band of Gypsys live record.

The staccato rhythm of the pulsating images interwoven with the overlapping sequences of
Hendrix’s and King‘s voices reflects the work’s title, which is Latin for the flow of oratory, or
prayer. Using images of the history of technology and the anti-Vietnam War audio tracks, the
work itself becomes a meditation on the legacy of the United States’ military industrial complex.
The second video, Synapse (2004), is part of a series Adkins made that explores the unfounded
myth that Ludwig von Beethoven was black, due to his Moorish ancestry. In Adkins’ video a
portrait of Beethoven slowly morphs into an image of a young black man, and then it morphs
back into the iconic composer. “I hope to generate a sense of seeking in the audience….You can
then fill in the gaps and participate in history in your own way,” Adkins said of the series. A
musician himself, Adkins was also deeply interested in Beethoven overcoming his deafness to
create some of his most important work.

Synapse will hang on the wall adjacent to the Film & Video gallery, alongside several historical
portraits from the Blanton’s collection, further examining the legacy of portraiture and the
construction of historical imagery.

Organized by Hannah Klemm, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Blanton Museum of Art

Members get free admission.

About the Artist

Terry Adkins (1953-2014) grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, and studied printmaking before
receiving an MFA in sculpture from the University of Kentucky, Lexington. From 2000 until his
death, Adkins was a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. His work has been exhibited at
the Frances Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, NY, the Museum of Modern Art, NY
(2016); ICA Miami (2018); the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (2020); and the Fisk University and the
Frist Museum in Nashville (2020). Adkins was included in the Performa Biennial in 2013, the
Whitney Biennial in 2014 and the Venice Biennale in 2015. Works by Adkins are in collections all
over the world including: the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of
Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Tate Collection, UK, and the Blanton Museum of Art. Adkins’
work Single Bound, 2000 is on view in the contemporary galleries.

Image Gallery

Image Credit

Installation view of “Flumen Orationis (from The Principalities)” (2012) in Terry Adkins, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY, April 23 – May 28, 2022, © 2024 The Estate of Terry Adkins / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Photo: Steven Probert