Mendi + Keith Obadike

Mendi + Keith Obadike are an artist duo who have collaborated on projects including early Internet art and large scale light & sound installations.  From 2001-2003, they staged a series of online interventions that are collectively titled, Black Net. Art Actions. One of the works was a webpage that features quotes from Mendi’s interactions with an older white male mentor. Another work, Blackness for Sale (2001) consisted of placing Keith’s “blackness” up for auction on eBay.com in the site’s “Black Americana” category. The artists used the newly accessible format of the internet to make tongue in cheek commentary on race and its commodification.