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Mendi and Keith Obadike

Mendi + Keith Obadike make conceptual sound and internet based works. The Obadike's projects concern the relation of new media narratives to older methods of social filtering. https://www.blacknetart.com/index1_1.html. Online sound and art works include the sound piece The Uli Suite (1998-99), based on Nigerian abstract painting form, the soundscape Sexmachines (2000) for Nam June Paik and James Brown, Blackness for Sale (2001), a performance in which they auctioned Keith's Blackness on eBay, Keeping Up Appearances (2001) a hypertext prose piece, and The Interaction of Coloreds (2002), an online skin color verification system.

Recent projects include a surround sound piece for DVD, Pink of Stealth (for EAI and NYAFF), and Mendi's new book, Armor and Flesh. Upcoming projects include two sound and internet based works: TaRonda Who Wore White Gloves, a country music mystery about a black debutante ball that we are developing for Franklin Furnace and the Rockefeller New Media Art Award, and an opera based on Amos Tutuola's novel My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and Pac Man that we are developing for Toni Morrison's Atelier at Princeton. Obadike's artwork has been exhibited internationally. They have received awards from Franklin Furnace, the Connecticut Commission for the Arts, the Connecticut Critic's Circle award for Outstanding Sound Design, the John Hope Franklin Award from the Center for Documentary Studies, the Andrew W. Mellon Award in Humanistic Studies, the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award, and the National Video Resources/Rockefeller New Media Award.

Keith Obadike has received a BA in Art from North Carolina Central University and an MFA in Sound Design from Yale University School of Drama. Mendi Obadike has received a BA in English from Spelman College and is completing a PhD in Literature at Duke University.

Cite this record

"Mendi and Keith Obadike." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/mendi-and-keith-obadike.

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Summary

Mendi + Keith Obadike make conceptual sound and internet-based works; projects address new media narratives and social filtering and include The Uli Suite (1998-99), Sexmachines (2000), Blackness for Sale (2001), Keeping Up Appearances (2001) and The Interaction of Coloreds (2002). Recent and upcoming projects include Pink of Stealth, Mendi's book Armor and Flesh, TaRonda Who Wore White Gloves (for Franklin Furnace and the Rockefeller New Media Art Award) and an opera developed for Toni Morrison's Atelier at Princeton. They have received awards from Franklin Furnace and the Connecticut Commission for the Arts among others; Keith holds a BA from North Carolina Central and an MFA from Yale; Mendi holds a BA from Spelman and is completing a PhD at Duke.

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Last modified 18 June 2011

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