WEEK IV

KINFOLK: DANIELLE SCOTT

The art pieces Danielle created allured me to sympathize and understand the process and history of her work. Danielle showed her inspiration through texture, color, objects, and remaking pieces from slavery times. The exhibit represents dedication to social commentary and ancestral storytelling. The representation captures moments of distress and carries stories that hit her core, reminding her of her ancestors, warriors, love, sadness, and resilience. Danielle had a mission to visit U.S plantations that were part of the slave trade and location where slaves made a life for themselves through those oppressive times. In the artist statement she states, "No single medium alone would ever again be enough to express all that the times were calling me to say. I was a painter,  but I put aside my paintbrush."  The art proposed was more than paint and a plain canvas to Danielle, the art that made her ancestors the protagonist of the rich history made her work illuminate those treasures that were hidden to the naked eye.

No Title- Danielle Scott

The image above shows a piece that Danielle Scott has in her Exhibit at Hepburn Hall NJCU. This piece symbolized hardship and inhumane actions that took place 200 years ago. Although he actual rope is not displayed, there is no hesitation that the prints on the solid rock-like background is depicting that this was the hangman's knot.  a representation of wrapping turns or coiled, heavily tightened to fit two individuals heads. Hanging was a method of execution and ultimately used for poor and racial or ethnic minorities. The cotton displayed over the noose shows that this was a representation of a moment during slavery, maybe even a cotton field, which was also an everyday task for most slaves. This piece being alone in the center of the exhibit made me feel that although there was deep rich history that African Americans endured, at the end no matter what you did (good or bad) society had no respect for another race that was not White America. 

Queen of Angels, 2020 -mixed medium assemblage on vintage ironing board

The ironing board piece was a beautiful one and my favorite piece of the exhibit. I loves the texture applied to the front of the board where you see the Queen of Angels walking over old letters and cut-out pieces that had words of empowerment. Phrases such as "Why Can't We Be on the Side of Peace" "Lets build a better America"  and "Art Heals" can be found underneath the Queen. On the Queen's blouse you can see familiar faces of politicians and activist that made a contribution to Black History. What I found breathtaking too, was the usage of an actual ironing board to hold this story. Why the Ironing Board? Sarah Boone Tribute, maybe. Sarah Boone was an African American Inventor of the Ironing Board.  Boone's ironing board was designed to improve the quality of ironing the sleeves and bodies of women's garments. 

"An Artist has one duty and that is to tell the times" - Nina Simone

THE CINDY SHERMAN EFFECT

“A number of younger artists are very much indebted to Sherman in their exploration of not just identity but also the nature of representation. Now we all take it for granted that a photograph can be Photoshopped. We live in the era of YouTube fame and reality-TV shows and makeovers, where you can be anything you want to be any minute of the day, and artists are responding to that. Cindy was one of the first to explore the idea of the malleability or fluidity of identity.”

Cindy Sherman revolutionized altering egos through media. She uses dramatized art to capture scary-funny images. They call her the father of photoshop, in which she distorts images, adds digital technology to her work to make it unreal.

“Cindy Sherman opened a lot of the doors. She was the trendsetter in terms of distorted characters within self-portraiture. Originally painters painted self-portraits, and then she kind of blew it open with photographic portraiture, and now there are all these avenues younger artists are taking, which would not have been so easy without her work.”

I loved looking at Cindy Shermans work, they definitely start conversation and makes you think outside the box, which she did all time. Her work also reminds me of Picasso when the era cubism and surrealism when the art just didn't have to make sense and also Warhol's pieces of color and pattern.