S ynthesising text and image, Adam Pendleton's Untitled (We are Not) (2019) reverberates with the defiant conceptualism that characterises his oeuvre. Exploring the intersection of Dada, Abstraction, Minimalism, and Street Art, Untitled (We are Not) reflects on text and visual culture within anti-racist and anti-capitalist movements. The present work is from the same series as Pendleton's current exhibition Who Is Queen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Part of Pendleton's signature Black Dada paintings, which he has been creating since 2008, Untitled (We are Not) explores the convergence of conceptual art and activism. Pendleton's Black Dada gestures to the avant-garde movement, simultaneously alluding to the conceptual vanguards and describings the radical activism of the present. Untitled (We are Not) examines appropriation, representation, and socio-political activism through the bold and visually captivating phrase 'We are Not'. Referencing Malcolm X's 1964 "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech, the captivating letters and overlaying text powerfully allude to the profound historical significance of this speech and the enduring importance of these words today.

Inspired by the avant-garde movement of the early twentieth century, Black Dada is conceptually engaging with varied histories and sociopolitical movements, situating these ideologies within the present context. As curator Adrienne Edwards describes, the process of reproducing and copying text emphasises "blackness as material, method and mode, insisting on blackness as a multiplicity." (Adrienne Edwards, Blackness in Abstraction, New York 2016) Pendleton published his Black Dada Reader, a collects ion of essays that explore the conceptual framework of Black Dada, in 2017, situating Untitled (We are Not) within the context of Black representation and political engagement. The concept is invested in "looking at Blackness as an open-ended idea that is not just related to notions of race. It looks at Blackness in relationship to politics, in relationship to art, in relationship even more specifically to the avant-garde. It's kind of a framing device but it's fluid, and it's unfixed" (Adam Pendleton and Hilarie Sheets, "I Want to Get People's Attention: Artist Adam Pendleton on Taking Over MoMA's Atrium with a Monumental Tribute to Black Dada,” Artnet News, 2021). The work features the repeatedly layered spray-painted words "WE ARE NOT." One atop the other, each iteration of the phrase becomes a shadow of the one above it, creating a bold and galvanising stat.mes nt.

Adam Pendleton's Untitled (We are Not) examines abstraction and language, overlapping and underlaying the repetitive message and in doing so recontextualizes history. As Lucy Ives describes,"Pendleton's Black Dada is, on the one hand, a return to the politically charged nonsense of the Zurich Dadaists and, on the other, an exploration of the term Black as an "open-ended signifier," as he has said." (Lucy Ives, Critical Eye: Publishing Amid the Museum's Ruins, September 23, 2021). Evocative and engaging, Untitled (We are Not) encapsulates the resounding cacophony of contemporary racial, economic and ideological issues, encompassing in a single phrase, "WE ARE NOT," the determined activism of the present.

亞 當・彭德爾頓的《無題（我們不是）》（2019-2020年作）結合文字與圖像，折射其作品特有的對抗性概念主義。《無題（我們不是）》探索達達、抽象、極簡主義和街頭藝術的交集，反思反種族主義與反資本主義運動中的文字及視覺文化。本作與彭德爾頓目前在紐約現代藝術博物館舉行的展覽〈誰是女王〉（Who Is Queen）屬同一系列，是藝術家自 2008 年開始創作的標誌性「黑色達達」系列畫作之一，探索概念藝術與行動主義的融合。「黑色達達」以前衛運動為題，同時影射概念先鋒及勾勒當下的激進行動主義。本作透過大膽而引人注目的短語「我們不是」審視挪用、文化代表及社會政治行動主義。本作引用麥爾坎・X 1964 年的《選票還是子彈》（The Ballot or the Bullet）演講，矚目的字母與重疊的文字，有力地影射著這篇演講深刻的歷史意義，以及這些文字歷久常新的重要地位。

「黑色達達」受二十世紀初的前衛運動啟發，在概念層面上指涉不同的歷史和社會政治運動，將這些意識形態放置在當前的背景。正如策展人艾德麗安·愛德華斯（Adrienne Edwards）所描述，再現與複製文本的過程強調「以黑色為材料、方法及模式，堅持黑色的多樣性」（摘自《Blackness in Abstraction》，紐約，2016 年）。彭德爾頓於 2017 年出版《Black Dada Reader》，這本文集探討黑色達達的概念框架，為《無題（我們不是）》注入黑人代表與政治參與的背景。該框架「視『黑色』為開放式概念，不限於種族觀念，且著眼於黑色與政治、藝術，特別是與前衛藝術的關係，是流動、非固定的框架」。（亞當‧彭德爾頓及希拉莉‧雪斯（Hilarie Sheets），摘自〈I Want to Get People's Attention: Artist Adam Pendleton on Taking Over MoMA's Atrium with a Monumental Tribute to Black Dada〉，Artnet News，2021 年）。本作呈現反覆層疊的噴漆文字「我們不是」。這句話層層堆疊，每一句都成為上面一句的影子，以此作出大膽而振奮人心的聲明。

彭德爾頓的《無題（我們不是）》審視抽象及語言，以互相重疊掩蓋的相同訊息，為歷史賦予新的背景。正如露西‧艾夫斯（Lucy Ives）所描述：「彭德爾頓的『黑色達達』一方面回歸蘇黎世達達主義者充滿政治色彩的胡言亂語，另一方面以『黑色』一詞作為他口中的『開放式符號』進行探索。」（摘自〈Critical Eye: Publishing Amid the Museum's Ruins〉，2021 年 9 月 23 日）。《無題（我們不是）》引人入勝，使人浮想聯翩，以一句「我們不是」涵蓋當今堅定的行動主義，概括當代種族、經濟及意識形態問題的高亢聲音。