“The legacy of the Black jockey in the institution of American horse racing is one that informs the politics of race relations even a century later … I invoke this history in response to the notion of Black moments, in the art world and beyond.”
—Derek FordjourIn Derek Fordjour’s cinematic Twelve Tribes, executed in 2021, a fleet of horses with jockeys are frozen mid stride – physically and historically suspended, these twelve frames can be seen as a meditation on process and labor by the artist. Rendered in side-profile, facing right, Fordjour’s horses range in color from brown and white to patchworks of neon; each is accompanied by a jockey, whose varied clothing belies the repetition of the composition. The diagonal lines of the checkered brown backgrounds seem to connect the 12 disparate canvases into a unified whole, positing the jockeys as both individuals and part of a collective.

 

Fordjour is perhaps most well-known for depicting Black performers throughout American history, guided by the notion of performance as a survival strategy for African Americans. Drawing on his friend and fellow artist Arthur Jafa’s notion of “Black genius resting in the body,” Fordjour seeks to elevate this performative bodily genius through the depiction of Black athletes, musicians and other professions.ⁱ As Ava Duvernay noted in conversation with the artist, Fordjour illustrates “the history of a community that pulsates from those people who are forward-facing. They represent us to the world, all of these figures.”ⁱⁱ

“My embodied experience of navigating a world steeped in bias, predicated on complex systems of inequity, informs my worldview and guides my intuition, the catalyst of my desire to create.”
—Derek Fordjour

In particular, the figure of the jockey racing on a horse is a recurring motif in Fordjour’s oeuvre. The artist explains, “The attitudes towards the Black jockey at the turn of the 20th century was a direct response to Jim Crow laws and a backlash in public sentiment. After a decade of victories in the late 19th century, they were unceremoniously extricated from the sport, an absence that by and large remains today.”ⁱⁱⁱ What Fordjour is invoking is the little-known history of Black horse jockeys. While Black jockeys are far and few between today, the first Kentucky Derby in 1875 was in fact comprised of 13 Black jockeys out of 15 total. Due to the fact that the first Black jockeys had been born into slavery or grew up as children of slaves tasked with caring for these horses on plantations and farms, these individuals learned how to ride as well, making it a natural progression for them to participate in the Derbies.

 

By the early 1900s, however, the jealousy of White jockeys began leading to the exclusion of Black jockeys from races. This was achieved via intimidatory tactics such as whipping their rivals or forcing their horses into the rails, to the point where a jockey could be trampled and killed. Jimmy Winkfield would be the last African American to ride in a Triple Crown race for almost a century after his win in 1902. Calling upon this insidious history, Fordjour seeks to make evident the many ways in which Jim Crow’s effects are still felt. As the artist explained in interview with ArtAsiaPacific in 2021, “The legacy of the Black jockey in the institution of American horse racing is one that informs the politics of race relations even a century later … I invoke this history in response to the notion of Black moments, in the art world and beyond.”^iv

“Each frame is its own idea.”
—Ava Duvernay, in conversation with Derek Fordjour

Twelve Tribes’ equestrian theme and 12-part format also pays homage to Eadweard Muybridge’s infamous The Horse in Motion. Until the 1870s, the prevailing convention for depicting horses in mid-stride was called the “flying gallop”, in which the horse has all four limbs straightened and extended outwards, with no hooves on the ground. This misconception was prevalent primarily because there was no means of proving it wrong at the time – photography’s shutter speed was not yet quick enough to capture the speed of a horse’s movement. In Twelve Tribes, although each frame shows the horse in slightly differing stages of movement, Fordjour primarily depicts the moment of unsupported transit. Combining the history of the Black jockey with Muybridge’s photographic discovery, the artist makes a striking commentary on latent racist histories.

 

What The Horse in Motion ended was the debate over photographic truth versus the unaided human eye. While the “flying gallop” may have appeared more elegant, Muybridge’s photographs were unerring proof of the awkward reality of a horse’s gallop. In this manner, perhaps Fordjour seeks to rectify the visual history of horse jockeys by adding 12 of his own Black jockeys to the narrative. In striking color and compelling texture, Twelve Tribes is a testament to the Black jockeys of America’s past, and a poignant critique of the way in which Black artists are received in our current contemporary art environment.

 

Fordjour’s collaged works are known for their exuberant visual materiality, which we see firsthand in Twelve Tribes. His process of art-making is distinctive, beginning with cardboard pieces glued to the surface before adding and subtracting layers of color, newspaper and other elements. We see this process reflected in the palimpsest-like nature of Twelve Tribes, where layers of thickly applied paint and torn cardboard collage both conceal and reveal the newspaper underneath. Here, he aligns himself within the larger art historical framework of artists who use underrepresented materials and processes, elevating the humble medium of collage to the realm of fine art. In this way, Fordjour’s process and chosen subject in Twelve Tribes work in tandem to explore deeper themes of racism and inequity and, in the artist’s words, “amplify my humanity in ways that foster empathy and authentic connection.”^v

 

ⁱ "Derek Fordjour in conversation with Ava Duvernay," David Kordansky Gallery, September 21, 2021, video, online.

ⁱⁱ “Derek Fordjour in conversation with Ava Duvernay, Bookmaker’s Dozen,” David Kordansky Gallery, 2021, online.

ⁱⁱⁱ HG Masters, “All the World’s a Stage: Interview with Derek Fordjour,” Asia Art Pacific, June 11, 2021, online.

^iv Ibid.

^v Derek Fordjour, quoted in ibid.