MALIK ROBERTS WANTS YOU TO KNOW YOU’RE NOT ALONE
I photographed and spoke with multimedia artist Malik Roberts ahead of his third solo show, ‘To Suffer A Lick’ at the Allouche Gallery.
Jacques Morel - Malik! I feel like we've spoken quite a few times over the last year and a half. You're prepping for what could have been your fourth show, but due to the pandemic, it’s now your third solo show named ‘To Suffer A Lick.’ Tell me what's going through your mind right now.
Malik Roberts -
What’s going through my mind right now is um, you know, it's a little bit anxiousness. You know, I feel like even within the title ‘To Suffer A Lick,’ like I've just been suffering for this lick for the longest. So I feel like I'm about to hit that my fucking self. I put my heart and soul into the work and from the people that’s seen the work, I've been getting a really good reception from them. So I'm good. I’m just waiting for the night to go past. Like I can have that breath of fresh air.
JM - With the title to ‘To Suffer A Lick,’ can you talk about that more specifically? Like maybe the lick for you was the pandemic. You had your show ‘Stolen’ and you had ‘Blk and Blue’ and then you had to suffer through having the pandemic stop what would have been your third show...so what did you suffer and how did it come out in the pieces?
MR - Well, how I suffered was that the setup for the third solo show was so massive. I had so much components that I put into having that become a reality. I paid a dude to come play violin and cello during the whole shit, to be like a whole black excellence type of thing.
I had some augmented shit, I had sound recordings, I've had so much things I put into that moment and I found out two days before it was supposed to open that it wasn't gonna be opening. So throughout that whole pandemic, I just was left with this feeling of unfulfillment... of just uncertainty because I was certain on what that show was going to do for me.
But since it didn't happen, I wanted it to happen. It came with the success of me selling out the show. But it's also it didn't really get to do what I wanted and needed it to do. I knew it had the possibility for it to happen. So the suffering really came through this whole time. Honestly, for me to have another opportunity to have a show in New York, to really show people what I do in my city.
JM -
Before I ask you the obvious question, what do you think this show is going to do for you... What do you think this show is going to do for people that see it? I know you've spoken about the liminal spaces that we all exist in and that you want your work to cause people to reflect on themselves. So what do you think it's going to do for people that come to check it out?
MR -
I think it'll be really reflective for the people that come and check it out. My work deals with a lot of introspective thoughts and introspective moments, those sort of nuances when you're alone in your thoughts, and you think nobody's watching you. So I feel like the liminality within the pieces. That's why I chose the setting.
It feels like you're in a room or it feels like you're in an apartment building and in some form of familiarity there. But it's also a little bit of unease within each piece. So I think people will be able to resonate with that kind of feeling of almost like a purgatory state that you're kind of set in this limbo with.
Yes, but it's really for people to be reflective. I don't I don't want answers from this show. I just want more questions.
JM -
Devilish! What new influences have you incorporated into your work in the \years since you blasted on to the scene?
MR -
Well as of late I went fully oil with all the paintings. I’ve moved away from using acrylics. I've taken more time [to complete the work] because when I was working on ‘Stolen’ and ‘Blk and Blue,’ I was finishing of a lot of those pieces in two or three days. But for this show, I was able to spend at least like a week and a half, two weeks since I've been prepping for the show for about five months.
So I was able to actually sit down and spend time with each piece and be able to cater to it like it needed. So I think it was more of me just stepping back in and utilizing what I knew to the best of my ability.
JM -
Is there anything you could leave us with right now that would really strike home for anybody that's kind of looking at this work and seeing what's going on in the world and how you were able to synthesize it?
MR
You are not alone in the feeling of being alone.
JM:
Thank you so much.
“To Suffer A Lick” is on view at the Allouche Gallery on 77 Mercer Street in NYC until May 17th.