One day last year African American performance artist Danny Tisdale set up a table on the sidewalk outside his studio in Harlem and started hawking skin-lightening products. Tisdale called himself Mr. Tracey E. Goodman, president of Transitions Inc.–“We turn minorities into majorities.” It was a trial run for a performance piece he took around New York City last May and is bringing to Randolph Street Gallery Monday night.
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Tisdale wasn’t ready for the response he received in the heart of Harlem, where his half-hour performance piece turned into a four-hour colloquium. He was astounded at the number of blacks who told him they’d never heard of skin-bleaching creams such as Dr. Fred Palmer’s Skin Whitener. “I was trying to tell people I didn’t get these products downtown. I didn’t get them from the south. I didn’t get them from overseas. I didn’t get them from the west coast. I got them right around the corner. People didn’t even know that these products were being sold in their own community.”
Tisdale, who went on to study business and art in college, adopted an ironic approach as he looked at the inside dynamics of contemporary black culture. His latest museum installation was titled “The Last of the African Americans.”
When researching his latest project, Tisdale approached the manufacturers of skin whiteners and sunless tanning potions. He thought he had explained the point of Transitions Inc. to the targets of his critique, so he was surprised that the executives loaded him up with packaging and statistics. They even tried to enlist him to do surveys on segments of the market they hadn’t reached. Only when a delegation came to see one of his performances did they grasp the concept of Transitions Inc. Tisdale hasn’t heard from them since.
