Jeffrey Gibson’s, IF I RULED THE WORLD is one of the works Chelsea Leingang, Seattle Art Museum’s visitor experience manager, is drawn to at the museum. Image courtesy of Chloe Collyer.
There’s a clear excitement as Leingang walked us through their favorite spots in the Seattle Art Museum. One work they were drawn to was, IF I RULED THE WORLD, a 2018 work from New York-based artist Jeffrey Gibson (member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and also of Cherokee descent) featured in SAM’s ongoing “Reverberations: Contemporary Art and Modern Classics” exhibition that opened last December. Gibson’s work is part of a series in which he repurposed punching bags, covering them in items like glass beads, metal jingles and nylon fringe. On the bag are lyrics from Nas’ 1996 song “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” featuring Lauryn Hill.
