Description Ti-Rock Moore (American/New Orleans, b. 1959), "I May Not Get There With You", 2015, neon tubing with transformer, unsigned, 3 1/2 in. x 59 in., fastened with chord and two-prong plug . Provenance: Acquired from the artist; Collection of Noted Preservationist and Aesthete Dorian M. Bennett, New Orleans. Note: For New Orleans artist Ti-Rock Moore, ?a daughter of the South and the Civil Rights era, a child and still-denizen of the French Quarter and the arts, and a pioneer of LGBTQ rights who has never lived above the Mason-Dixon line, white privilege and the racism it engenders has always been a highly visible, salient, and uncomfortable reality.? As one of the first students at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) in the 1970s, Moore initially pursued dance as her medium, but she eventually detoured to dentistry before emerging in 2014 as a contemporary artist seeking to strike out against racism with protest and often controversial works. Moore renamed herself in homage to legendary French Quarter artist Noel Rockmore, adding ?Ti,? short for "petit Rockmore" or "little Rockmore" in the Cajun style. Moore?s activism in the 1980s and 1990s indelibly informed her passion and intensity for exploring what is for many ?the most recalcitrant of American vices: hatred based on race.? Her work today focuses on dismantling the structures that support racism through her evocative installations and sculpture. In ?I May Not Get There With You? from 2015, Moore uses neon to highlight Martin Luther King, Jr.?s foreshadowing last passage from his ?I?ve Been to the Mountaintop? speech, given on April 3, 1968, the night before his assassination in Memphis. ?Well, I don?t know what will happen now. We?ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn?t matter with me now, because I?ve been to the mountaintop. And I don?t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I?m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God?s will. And he?s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I?ve looked over, and I?ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I?m happy tonight. I?m not worried about anything. I?m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.? - Martin Luther King, Jr. Ref.: "Ti-Rock Moore." Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. www.jonathanferraragallery.com. Accessed July 29, 2020. MacCash, Doug. ?Artist Ti-Rock Moore Strikes out against Racism with Provocative Works.? Times Picayune. Dec. 15, 2014. www.nola.com. Accessed July 30, 2020
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