With Drawn Arms is a collaboration between the Los Angeles–based conceptual artist Glenn Kaino and the Olympic gold-medalist sprinter Tommie Smith, who famously raised his fist in protest at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. The exhibition commemorates Smith’s iconic gesture—an act of protest against international human rights abuses, and a symbol of solidarity with the civil rights movement in the United States—and explores its continuing resonance today. Presented in San José as part of the Museum’s fiftieth anniversary, the exhibition will be presented with a succession of programs inspired by the project’s significant local relevance, and motivated by the artists’ desire to “pass the relay baton” and spark a call to action for a new generation.

In 1968, twenty-four-year-old San José State University student Tommie Smith won first place in the 200-meter men’s race at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. During the awards ceremony, while the American national anthem played, Smith accepted his medal, raised his gloved fist, and then bowed his head. This powerful image of protest has circulated beyond time and context. Now, fifty years later, it has become a symbol for a myriad of beliefs, ideas, and social causes.

The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is located within walking distance of San José State University (SJSU), home to a legendary track and field program that earned the university the nickname “Speed City” between 1956 and 1979.  Smith and and fellow SJSU athlete and activist John Carlos, who joined Smith on the podium in his raised-fist salute, were politically inspired by Harry Edwards, who founded SJSU’s Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) in 1967 to address racial issues in society and sports. Smith and Carlos’s protest is commemorated on campus with a monumental statue by artist Rigo 23 (dedicated 2005). The relaunch of SJSU’s track and field program in 2018 following a thirty-year hiatus, coupled with the recent NFL protests that started in neighboring Santa Clara, are inspiring new interest in the unique interplay of political and sports history.

About the Collaborators

Glenn Kaino is an internationally renowned conceptual artist whose work often explores the spaces between the memories and history of revolutionary moments. Since he and Smith met several years ago, this unlikely duo—a forty-two-year-old fourth-generation Japanese-American artist, and a seventy-one-year-old African-American athlete—have been collaborating on projects and programs around the world, engaging diverse voices in a cross-cultural and cross-generational conversation about social justice and the power of the individual to enact change.

Glenn Kaino (b. 1972, Los Angeles) received his BFA from the University of California, Irvine, in 1993, and his MFA from the University of California, San Diego, in 1996.Kaino draws on his undergraduate education in computer science and formal training as a sculptor to make work that spans a wide range of media and creative activity.  He engineers large-scale installations and site- or situation-specific sculptural works that are infused with sociopolitical commentary. In 2012, he was selected by the U.S. Department of State to represent America in the 13th International Cairo Biennale, and was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the 12th Lyon Biennial in Lyon, France; and Prospect 3 in New Orleans. His work is currently on view at SJMA in the exhibition Other Walks, Other Lines (November 2, 2018–March 10, 2019).

Tommie Smith (b. 1944, Clarksville, Texas) is a sprinter, civil rights activist, author, speaker, and scholar. While attending SJSU on an athletic scholarship, Smith excelled on one of the most competitive teams in collegiate sprinting history, and became an icon of the civil rights movement at the 1968 Olympics. Since retiring from sprinting, Smith has taught sociology at Oberlin college and has been an active public speaker. He now lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia.