Oath of the Imperialists

Ellington Robinson, who earned his MFA in painting and mixed media at the University of Maryland in 2008, repurposes once-functional objects to explore ongoing histories of global imperialism. His work makes palpable connections between contemporary politics and events such as the Berlin Conference (1884–1885) and Sykes–Picot Agreement (1916) at which European powers partitioned the continent of Africa and territories of the Ottoman Empire for colonial exploitation. Here Robinson has painted and collaged a heavy tabletop. Knives plunged into its surface seem to stake a claim in an imagined geography. Expanded on its runners but missing its central leaf, the structure is held together by a single gauge, as if to suggest the precariousness of human conquest.