A reference to the US clothing and hip hop brand FUBU, Hamishi Farah‘s solo exhibition Jailbait (For Us By Us), running at Brussel’s Mon Chéri June 11 to July 18, points to structural racism both in and outside the art world. The Somali-Australian artist uses miscellaneous cultural signifiers –Uniqlo leggings, a Foot Locker tall tee, Chinese characters, international water, and possibly unclaimed recovered stolen artwork –relating to the artist’s personal experience and a projected global capitalist police-state.

“Everyone wants to be a nigga but no one wants to be a nigga (sic) (tru) watches whole first season of The wire in room alone”, writes Aurelia Guo in an exhibition text that teases the viewer with fragmented insight into the loose narrative that ties the Jailbait together. There are many new thought-provoking works by Farah, namely a poem simply called ‘Wifi poem’ (2015), made up of five wi-fi extenders and an Australian power box that reveals itself when one attempts to connect to wi-fi in the gallery using a smart device. When prompted to choose a network on a smartphone the options are as follows: 1 who let / 2 the hood / 3 into / 4 the / 5 gallery.

‘Only god can judge me (Untitled)’ (2015), is a beautiful yet drab carpet that rests quietly between a doorway, oversized for its location with the phrase “Only God Can Judge Me” burned into it, the title of a well-known song by deceased rapper Tupac Shakur, whose portrait is found on a whiteboard in another piece called ‘No Title’ (2015). References to a dog recur throughout the exhibition with ‘Retroactive pet passport & travel docs for unnamed canine survivor of sea venture shipwreck’ (2015)–a pet import application installed into a mould on a wall–and ‘Dog Heaven’ (2015)–a sculpture made from a table, fountain, pump, and filled with two litres of collected international water diluted with Brussels tap water. The fountain has a dog’s head affixed to one side, its tail on opposite one. International water is something outside of any nation’s jurisdiction, something untouchable that cannot be judged. It’s a poetic place where race and capital cannot impose any state of being onto any individual, yet is also isolated and outside of any society, always restricted from acceptance. **