Derrick Woods-Morrow
Limited edition print by Headmaster No. 8 contributor Derrick Woods-Morrow (Chicago).
Derrick Woods-Morrow
The Roach Is Coming
The Roach Is Coming is a new video by Headmaster No. 8 contributor Derrick Woods-Morrow. Headmaster co-hosted the video with OTV | Open Television throughout the month of July, 2018.
The video is an extension of Derrick’s project for Headmaster No. 8. The issue is thematically structured around the Village People, and he was given a cop-themed assignment. More specifically, he was asked to consider the importance of the uniform in relation to authority. At the time, the editors had no idea that Derrick would soon be involved in a late-night altercation with the Chicago PD after leaving a gay bar, or that he would reconnect with a boyhood friend, now a police officer, that he hadn’t seen in many years. The Roach Is Coming is based on a recording of the intimate conversation between Derrick and his childhood friend, recorded while Derrick and the other man bathed each other.
“In 2017 I returned home to Greensboro, NC to reconnect with a police officer, who was once just another feral young boy on the playgrounds much like myself. Throughout a 72 hour period, we return to past moments of play, in an attempt to build a future were we could like we once were - two young boys, searching for each other, deep into the bushes, one white & one unaware of his blackness.”
The Roach Is Coming by Derrick Woods-Morrow. Co-presented by OTV / Open Television.
Upon receiving the assignment, Woods-Morrow reconnected with his childhood friend, now a police officer in North Carolina. The two reunited for a brief while, Woods-Morrow documenting the entire time. The photo-based project in Headmaster No. 8 includes a series of Polaroids, over which Woods-Morrow transcribed the intimate conversation recorded as he bathed the man.
In collaboration with the artist, Headmaster has reproduced the Polaroids as an 18" x 24", limited edition print in an edition of 25 on Canson Infinity PhotoSatin Premium paper.