A Portrait of True Red by Danielle Dean

Artist: Danielle Dean

Title: A Portrait of True Red

Curated by: Ana Iwataki and Marion Vasseur Raluy

Screening: February 7 – 28, 2016

Year: 2016

Duration: 8’40”

Performer: Celma Neto

Production: Sharad Patel (Cinematographer, special effects and sound mix), Ryan Nguyen from Huephoric (Colorist), Nadji Films (Lighting)

All images copyright and courtesy of the artist

One night, one bloody fire-filled, fire-filled night, 21,000 attacked.^[1]

Sam Jones never suited me, I didn’t like the way I looked, I didn’t like the way my parents looked, I didn’t want to grow up.^{^[2]}

But in 2003 I became True red, also know as the Poor bloods.^{^[3]}

It started when I was captured in New Jersey after being shot with both arms held in the air and then shot again from the back. I was left on the ground to die.^{^[4]}

I stood – a New pick up ^{^[5]}as Dead stock^{^[6]}

You know I’d hate to just die.^{^[7]}

There were about 1000 of us produced, in a factory in China, where women were being viciously beaten in the head with the shoes they were producing, they found they were not safe because of the male supervisor were always looking to have sex and do violence to them. ^{^[8]}

There is a time and place for mercy. And it wasn’t then and it isn’t now.^{^[9]}

Some background, in 1760 there was a slave revolt in a Jamaica, one of many before the Haitian revolution. The Europeans described what happened as Vampiric. Vampiric.^{^[10]}

One account of the revolt said they entered a house whilst Mrs Reese was asleep. It was to sleep the sleep of death. She had only time to say who is that, and she was no more.^{^[11]}

As Sam Jones I was already a vampire.

Don’t get cold feet I said, join the Poor bloods and become true red.^{^[12]}

In a factory in China, to a factory in Haiti.^{^[13]}

The leader of the revolt was sprinkled with a powder that gave him the ability to catch approaching bullets in the air. The blood that flowed was put down to malevolent forces.^{^[14]}

We, the poor bloods shall sweat the same language. We are flesh and we are blood, we are bound together for better or worse.^{^[15]}

If you suck, I suck. ^{^[16]}

I have red eyelits, where I can be unlaced.^{^[17]}

I can peel off and unlace my suede. To be released from my skin and jump high into the sky.^{^[18]}

Zoom puff, fire.

I get a bounce to which I like a lot and I can return to another colorway, black with red details perhaps.^{^[19]} ^{^[20]}

I have bought my freedom, with

fly wire.^{^[21]}

But my flexibility is limited, as if I am a criminal, waiting outside your home sweet home, or in the corner, a dark alley.^{^[22]}

One night, one bloody fire-filled, fire-filled night, 21,000 attacked.^{^[23]}

A day has enough hours, you have too many excuses .^{^[24]}

In the factory some women were punished by being forced to stand outside in the sun.^{^[25]}

The women met at night, in the dark of the alleys, under the stairs, under the highway^{^[26]}.

When the days get shorter, Light up the night.^{^[27]}

Please tell your friends about this

Please, cause I need more subscribers please.

Please tell your friends.^{^[28]}

^{^[1]} Anatol, Giselle Liza. The Things That Fly in the Night: Female Vampires in Literature of the Circum-Caribbean and African Diaspora. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2015. Print.

^{^[2]} Nike commercial, “You didn’t like the way you looked. You didn’t like the way your parents looked. You didn’t want to grow up”, Janet Champ, Wieden and Kennedy 1990’s. I replaced ‘You’ with ‘I’

^{^[3]} “Nike Dunk Low Pro SB – True Red – Black – Vampire (Vamps).” Sneaker News. N.p., n.d. Web.

^{^[4]} Assata, 2015; Shakur in her own words, open letter to Pope John, recording played on Democray Now, May 2013, 05:25

^{^[5]} Nike SB video #142, True Reds, YouTube, 00:07. Web.

^{^[6]} Nike, SB collection, 6 new pickup heater, YouTube, 2:21. Web.

^{^[7]} ‘Jodi’, Nike commercial, Nike Culture, Robert Goldman and Stephan Papson, Sage editions,1998. 131. Print.

^{^[8]} Reporter, Daily Mail. “Nike Workers ‘kicked, Slapped and Verbally Abused’ at Factories Making Converse.” Daily Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 13 July 2011. Web

Bradford, Harry. “Nike Faces New Worker Abuse Claims In Indonesia.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 July 2011. Web.

^{^[9]} Goldman, Robert and Stephen Papson. Mia Hamm, Nike Commerical, 1996 Nike Culture. Sage editions, 1998. 158. Print.

^{^[10]} Anatol, 2015.

^{^[11]} Nat Turner, 1800?-1831. The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Va. DocSouth, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004. 13. Web.

^{^[12]} Nike. “Don’t Get Cold Feet.Winter Is When the Committed #getouthere. Https://t.co/Rj22ugRwIAhttps://t.co/P2G85ksdKU.” Twitter. Twitter, 06 Nov. 2015. Web.

^{^[13]} Si-soo, Park. “Hansae to Build Apparel Factory in Haiti.” Koreatimes. The Korea Times, 07 Oct. 2015. Web.

^{^[14]} Anatol, 2015.

^{^[15]} Goldman, Robert and Stephen Papson. Mia Hamm, Nike Commerical, 1996 Nike Culture. Sage editions, 1998. 129. Print.

^{^[16]} Even if you suck, Nike commercial, 2006, YouTube.

^{^[17]} HeartxAndxSoles. “Nike SB Dunk High Shoe Review: #24 Red Devil.” YouTube. YouTube, 10 July 2011. Web.

^{^[18]} Anatol, 2015.

^{^[19]} MrFOAMERSIMPSON. “NIKE LEBRON 13 PERFORMANCE REVIEW!” YouTube. YouTube, 10 Nov. 2015. Web.

^{^[20]} Anatol, 2015.

^{^[21]} MrFOAMERSIMPSON. “NIKE LEBRON 13 PERFORMANCE REVIEW!” YouTube. YouTube, 10 Nov. 2015. Web.

^{^[22]} Harney, Stephen and Fred Moten. The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study. Minor Compositions, 2013. Print.

^{^[23]} Anatol, 2015.

^{^[24]}Halewyck, Levi. ““@Nike: A Day Has Enough Hours. You Just Have Too Many Excuses.”??.” Twitter. Twitter, 16 Mar. 2015. Web.

^{^[25]} Bradford, Harry. “Nike Faces New Worker Abuse Claims In Indonesia.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 July 2011. Web.

^{^[26]}China worker.info, Massive strike by footwear workers in Dongguan,17 April 2014. Web.

^{^[27]} Light up the night in Nike SB’s Flash Pack,Tactics blog, Web.

^{^[28]} SneakerReviews23. “Nike Dunk Low Pro SB “True Red” Review #21.” YouTube. YouTube, 06 Dec. 2012. Web.

Danielle Dean, A Portrait of True Red, 2016 (video still), HD video