Altering viewers’ perceptions in this way is an act of social consciousness: It shows that things aren’t necessarily as they seem, that the world can be a different place, if they so desire.Ĭollaboration - with other artists, activists, scientists and celebrities - is something Kaino turns to so earnestly and often, it’s practically a material in his artist’s toolbox, as integral as paint and paper.

Often his work takes a phenomenological approach, as the Compound works do, playing with light, color and shadows to toy with viewer perceptions, a skill he honed over a decade studying magic and illusion. But activism - mining it conceptually and creating works intended to “spark change” - is a through-line.

The 48-year-old artist toggles between two-dimensional works, sculpture, installations and multimedia. “And it’s especially relevant now.”Īctivism is central to Kaino’s practice. “That image, it’s one of the most powerful protest gestures of the 20th century,” Kaino says of Smith’s raised fist. The film, “With Drawn Arms,” co-directed by Afshin Shahidi, premiered Nov. Kaino also co-directed a feature documentary film about sprinter Tommie Smith, who famously raised his gloved fist to protest racism in America at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, where he’d won the gold medal in the 200-meter race. Kaino will soon be launching an online magazine called _Ships, featuring long-form articles, interviews, photography and videos from prominent writers and artists, echoing ideas in the Mass MoCA show. Several in-progress works for that show lie around Kaino’s studio in different stages of development. Compound hopes to premiere the works in December, pandemic permitting.Ī Mass MoCA solo exhibition of four new large-scale installations addressing global protests is planned for February. “Cloud Chamber” and “Wishing Well” make up an exhibition called “Tidepools,” a 20-minute, immersive solo experience that was intended to debut at the new Long Beach art and wellness space Compound in September, but which has been in limbo because of the coronavirus. The artist has a dizzying number of projects coming to fruition, all of them at the center of his interests in social justice, science and the environment, pop culture and magic.

Victory stand tommie smith