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Smile is a four-channel video artwork Kehinde Wiley began while completing his MFA at Yale University in 2001. The artist revisited the project 15 years later, once again asking young men he found on the streets of New York to smile unceasingly in front of a camera for one hour. Within the video, the young men can be seen stoically submitting to discomfort and humiliation as their expressions distort under the pain and duress of the pursuit to appear happy. 

Kehinde Wiley Smile, 2001/2016
Full Length of video: 1:00:17
Length of clip: 0:03:15
Courtesy: Roberts Projects
© 2020 Kehinde Wiley