My Kingdom for a Title was the first exhibition to be organized at the Neubauer Collegium since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The global health emergency unavoidably cast a shadow over the project, which contained allusions to the crisis with a degree of directness that is unusual in Pope.L’s work. Visitors entered an immersive installation under a cloud of objects that have come to symbolize the socio-medical predicament. The centerpiece was a selection of works chosen from Pope.L’s Skin Set Project, an ongoing series of text-based drawings and paintings featuring elliptical aphorisms that call attention to the way color is deployed to categorize people. An arrangement of medicine cabinets with mirrored doors left ajar were lit from the inside, inviting visitors to get a better look at the works contained within. The subtle play of prompts and references animated the gallery as a space where notions of access — to art, to meaning, to health care — were entangled with those of color as conventional markers of identity.

Curated by Dieter Roelstraete

Installation photography and video by Robert Heishman. All rights reserved.