Tony Rave: A Sophisticated Rage

By Nichole M. Christian

Dear Viewer,

The artist Tony Rave respectfully requests you bring a blank mind to what you’re about to see.

To lay eyes on even a single work in his new solo exhibition at M Contemporary Art, Michael Jesus Crisis, is to join Rave on a dive into cultural discomfort with artful purpose, and at times biting comical commentary. Rave wants you to question something; maybe rethink everything. He has!

The exhibition’s title alludes to some of Rave’s intent and into the wild collision of ideas and imagery awaiting you on the gallery’s walls and floors. The mashed up words are the only subtlety connect with the show, an array of reconfigured objects and figurines, most dipped in blackface, centerpieces of a full-on juxtaposition of arguably sacred American iconography and the artist’s deep distaste with what he declares as a forced cultural worship of images such as NBA great Michael Jordan and portrayals of Jesus Christ as a white man and the most recognizable face of white innocence.

(Several of the pieces feature Air Jordans and angelic figurines literally bound together, as if they’re wrestling to determine which is superior.)

“I’m trading the cross for the Jordan jump man symbol, the effect this one symbol and one man had on pop culture—the God of materialism.

Some people will get it immediately the way I’m putting these things on top of each other to show what’s been done.’’

This is Rave at his rawest.

“They called him Black Jesus when he was playing.’’ And what to make of the crisis portion of the title? Here it’s worth noting that not all of Rave’s references in this body of work are in fact rooted in rage.

“When my daughter was younger she used to say Jesus Crisis because she couldn’t say Christ. I’m playing with everything around me with play on worship and how images get turned into gods,’’ Rave explains.

Michael Jesus Crisis is also Rave’s invite for discerning minds to join him in the reclamation of critical thought. “What I’m doing is meant to have people have conversations with their own selves. Some of it's serious but some of it’s funny if you’re ready to question what iconography does to culture and thought. I’m purposefully desecrating images that have infected our subconscious without really questioning it.’’

Rave is ready for some viewers' possible revolt. The likelihood is predictable and even understandable; a Black man pointedly putting a “hood” spin and Black face on symbols of white innocence and white godliness. In the show, only viewers’ minds and openness are sacred to Rave; not the angel, not the cherub, not the (American) dollar bill.

Rave takes sly aim also at some symbols of Black urban culture and households. Arman Hammer, Colonel Sanders are here along with black-eyed-peas and bottles upon bottles of Hennessy, the pseudo sacred sip of choice for the (Black) culture, are also reinterpreted by Rave as symbols of the draining of Black tastes for white profit. “We (Black people) buy everything from everybody. That’s why you see companies consistently advertising to us. We play the role of keeping money cycling. Just like we were when we were brought to this country. (Hennessy is made by one of the world’s largest producers of French cognac.)

“I want to bring down the idea of any (of) these images being pushed on us as godlike or worshiped. There’s this responsibility to question what we’ve been fed and what we’re still being fed in America.’’

He adds, “But first I have to make you see the propaganda in the image by taking it down to the level of pop art. I’m trying to do everything within art to make it beautiful but also not make some work that just sacrificing the images of Black people to get the point across in your mind.’’

Resist the urge to reduce Rave to an angry artist. “This is art trying to express what manipulation looks like, what it does. I’m not crying about it; I’m not screaming at anybody.’’

As for you Dear Viewer, your reaction is out of Rave’s hands. “This is me as an artist, sitting around expressing a truth we can all see; I’m just trying to find a way to be honest about the roles we play and to feel better about understanding what’s happening.’’

Exhibition page

Nichole M. Christian is a writer and veteran journalist. She has worked as creative director, editor and lead writer for the Kresge Foundation’s annual eminent artist monograph series. The titles include: A Palette for The People (2021), honoring painter and educator, Shirley Woodson; Wonder and Flow, (2020) honoring ceramicist Marie Woo, and A Life Speaks, (2019) honoring poet and activist Gloria House. Nichole was also coauthor of Canvas Detroit. Her writing also appears in the poetry chapbook, Cypher, summer 2021; Portraits 9/11/01: The Collected Portraits of Grief from The New York Times; the online arts journal, Essay’d; A Detroit Anthology, and Dear Dad: Reflections on Fatherhood.