In one way or another this concept has guided the work of Tim Rollins and K.O.S. for the past twenty-five years. While teaching at Intermediate School #52 in the South Bronx in 1984 Tim Rollins started an after school art and literacy program for students the school deemed unteachable. Rollins refused to patronize his students and instead encouraged them to explore classical literature and connect the content to their own experience. During one exercise Rollins instructed his students to make spontaneous drawings while he read aloud from George Orwell’s book 1984. One of the students misunderstood the instruction and began to draw directly onto the pages of his copy of the book. This accident excited the rest of the class, opened up creative possibilities, and literally drew the students into the text with an enthusiasm that previously seemed impossible.
The students in the class soon named themselves K.O.S. for Kids Of Survival to acknowledge the skills they had acquired. The link between literature and art has remained a constant for Rollins and K.O.S. as the group has changed and evolved over the years.
Several works in this exhibition were created in a master class that Tim Rollins and Rick Savinon from K.O.S conducted with students from Nottingham and Fowler high schools in Syracuse. These works are included with previous works created by Rollins and K.O.S. based on the writings of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Stephen Crane, and Ralph Ellison. To have students from Syracuse create work based on The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, who attended Syracuse University, brings an important community connection to the project and continues to extend the ability of Rollins and K.O.S. to find new meaning in voices rarely acknowledged as important.
Jeff Hoone, Interim Curator for The Warehouse Gallery