Retina Records finds Anwar Floyd-Pruitt inventing a new visual language capable of evoking the experience of time travel. Densely layered spray painted works yield a kaleidoscopic installation that is equally inspired by the aesthetic sensibilities of the 1990s as well as by an imagined Afro-futurist tomorrow.
Floyd-Pruitt’s abstract faces unite features culled from family photos. The inspiration came from the experience of looking in a mirror and recognizing his mother’s cheek bones or his grandfather’s laugh lines. The portraits collapse the past into the present and lay the ground for the future.
Retina Records emerges from an improvised alchemy of unassuming materials including found paper, spray paint, and brass eyelets. The paper is laid on the floor and Floyd-Pruitt works intuitively, spray painting until sections call out for further elaboration. The emergent forms recall cassette tapes and vinyl records. The finished works possess all the warmth of analog technology and suggest the unique ability of sound to transport listeners through both space and time.
Floyd-Pruitt is adept in collage, sculpture, drawing, and puppetry. After graduating from Harvard University with a BA in psychology, Floyd-Pruitt began his career in corporate marketing but found it unfulfilling. He returned to Wisconsin and is currently completing an MFA from University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has created projects encouraging students to vote, a gun violence memorial sculpture garden, and a community-based learning program for at-risk and court-involved teens.
