CUNTRY: Always the Horse, Never the Jockey

Due to the process-based nature of the Session program, this project will undergo constant modifications; the features of this page provide accruing information on the project’s developments.

It is a harrowing realization to notice and understand that the systems seen in the United States are intentionally designed to fail us. Each day, I’ve seen who chooses to ride right past the dysfunction in search of industry. I can’t help but admit that I feel more in relation to the horse itself than the jockey. CUNTRY. - Cleo Reed

CUNTRY: Always the Horse, Never The Jockey is a set of musical works, sculptures, and performances presented by Cleo Reed with Assembly fellows, working to protest against the demand of labor and productivity in the US. The never-before released studio album, performance piece, and installation synthesizes field songs, traditional American music genres such as blues, folk, and country, and the Black cultural canon of literature, film, music, and more in order to provoke conversations and create distinct changes in the way these canons are embraced. Exploring systems, labor and the body, we work with musical compositions, wooden sculpture, and fabric arts to deepen the context we hold as inhabitants of cities but descendants of country living. In reality, this migration holds a deep marker in the scope of our political lives.

CUNTRY: Always the Horse, Never The Jockey is developed as part of Recess’s Session x Assembly partnership, which brings together Recess’s Session artists and its Assembly program for systems-impacted youth. is developed as part of Recess’s Session X Assembly partnership, which brings together Recess’s Session artists and its Assembly program for systems-impacted youth. Reed will spend two months as a teaching artist, building relationships with Assembly fellows to collaboratively build out the Session installation and related programming. With original music and poetry at the core of this work, Assembly will study the Black American musical canon, Black clown theory, and protest music. Recognizing the inaccessibility of capital for artistic production, this project will also include grant-writing workshops for Assembly and the public—as well as music-making and guided research sessions—transforming musical ideas into actionable processes that can give their work a political home. Overall, this project is a hybrid of both political education and skill-based creativity.

As a collective, Cleo and Assembly fellows will create sculptures and text-based pieces throughout the space. A listening station, a rocking horse, and a baby mobile are representational pieces the collective is exploring. These pieces serve as aesthetic markers of excess, adultification in the home, capitalism, restriction, and identity. Expanding across three stages from March to April, the Session space will slowly reveal new sculptures and interactive elements as the project evolves.

In March, CUNTRY: Always the Horse, Never The Jockey will open to the public with the creation of a “declaration of rest” — a living document that collects testimonials for systemic change and places them on visual display. Throughout the Session, the public is invited for a film series and discussion with Artists Against Apartheid and The People’s Forum dedicated to labor movements throughout the world; a board and card game night; a dance workshop and music night; and a grant writing workshop. The culminating event of the Session project will be an album listening experience of CUNTRY, featuring performances by Cleo Reed and Assembly, along with tintype photograph portraits and live screen printing.