Fear of a Black Planet

2021

Fear of a Black Planet confronts American injustice against Black people through commemoration, reduction, and historical citation. Conceived following the Los Angeles uprisings in response to George Floyd’s murder, the thirteen-work series comprises a large-scale red, black, and green flag painting and twelve Date Paintings.

Each date records a life taken by police violence or, in Sandra Bland’s case, the day of her arrest and incarceration. In dialogue with On Kawara’s use of the date, Bennett transforms a record of time into evidence within the national memory. The paintings preserve names and histories that cannot be reduced to passing news.

Drawn from Public Enemy’s 1990 album, the title holds two meanings together: the fear white supremacy projects onto Black people and the vigilance that system imposes on Black Americans. First presented during Bennett’s residency at Kean University, the series insists that liberation remains unfinished and that these lives belong within the history of American art.