Rashaad Newsome is taking collage off the wall. The New Orleans-raised, New York-based artist, who is best-known for his dazzling assemblages of cutout images of diamonds, platinum pendants, golden jewelry, expensive cars, and other signifiers of affluence, applies the same principles to his video and performance art projects. And this fall he has a full slate in the works, including a rap battle-cum-runway show featuring the iconic footwear of designer Christian Louboutin, the maker of much-coveted high-heeled shoes, at the Brooklyn Museum.
On September 6, to kick off the VIP opening of “Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe” at the Brooklyn Museum, Newsome will premiere a live version of KNOT, his video piece in the exhibition. Performers including queer rappers Kevin Jz Prodigy, Cakes da Killer, Ian Isiah, and more will perform in the museum’s lobby. Whereas Newsome’s previous bodies of work have drawn on the iconography of heraldry, likening contemporary fashion to trends in conspicuous consumption dating back to the Medieval and Renaissance periods, the video and performance at the Brooklyn Museum take the soaring and lavishly decorated forms of Gothic architecture as their generative motif.
After the “Killer Heels” performance, Newsome will be hitting the road. On September 27 and 28 he presents a site-specific performance from his Shade Compositions series at a festival in Austria. In October he and singer Solange Knowles—Beyoncé’s sister—will guide art lovers around New Orleans to different components of the Prospect.3 biennial aboard a specially designed bus. And in December he returns to New York for a major solo show at Marlborough Gallery that will open, naturally, with a high-octane (and high-heeled) performance.