So me and my advisor, Yasotha, went to see the gallery debut of Fallacies of Black Identity Enthusiast by Kay Douglas in Springfield. And honestly, another world changer.
Like all of the artists I keep meeting are so humble. I love it. When we first arrived at the gallery, I wasn't sure who Kay Douglas was. I hadn't seen a photo of what the artist looked like. I think honestly this is the best way to experience work, in the unknown.
Anyway, I walk in and go straight to the bathroom cause I had to go. When I come back into the room, there's news camera people here and I'm like wow, this is big and it should be. They deserve this, to be this black and proud, yes tell the world! Lol.
The first piece I see are these two heads, made of wire, shackled and siting onto of a wood platform. I immediately think of slavery and the enslavement of black bodies. I see a info card near and read to know more. I read: ""We Want Freedom For All Black Men Held In Federal State, County, And City Prisons and Jails. We believe that all Black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial." This quote above is the 8th of 10 different points the Black Panther Party advocated for and believe in.""
From this, I began to see a theme in the work. I took a step back and looked around me and figured that the rest of these points from the Black Panther Party would follow throughout the rest of the exhibit work. This is true for most of them, not all.
Next, I saw a familiar image. A man with bag on his head was sitting on a chair and another man was pointing a gun to this head. I recognized this image from the music video for "This is America" by Childish Gambino. Of course, this image was different cause it was painted with a flag background. The colors being symbolic of Pan-African colors. After I read the info card, I realized that the guy pointing the gun was painted white. This contrast was very important and Douglas wanted to be clear in her intention to start a conversation about "...black men being prosecuted almost always by people who don't look like him."
The next pieces of work I came across were these three huge gold frames hanging from black rope from the ceiling. There are two other similar ones not hanging but rather are mounted on the wall. These frames included portraits of people and being that these people were presented like this and how it felt memorialistic, I figured these were police brutality victims. From first glance, I recognized only #SandraBland but upon further investigation, I found I knew three of these folks including #EricGardner and #DeborahDanner. The other black men were #TrevorJohnson #DeaundrePhillips with all of the works including #NoMoreHashtags. What really struck me about these pieces were the huge quarter sized holes in the pieces that were hanging. They also had painted backgrounds of a gun from the front. With the one for Sandra Bland, there were question marks, which I felt were representative of her controversial death. For Eric Garner, there were lungs in representation of his stressed statement: "I Can't Breath". I love the creativity and details of these pieces the most because these people are dearly missed and were more valuable than being victims of racist police.
The next piece was made in honor the of artist's brother who felt that serving in the military was his only way out of the ghetto. I haven't heard similar things but I do know that Black people could first gain citizenship through serving in the military. My granddad also served in the military (as a soldier or a chief, I'm not sure). I appreciated her commentary on her reasons for materials, in which for this particular pieces, Douglas says she wanted to "emphasize the idea that "we are all cut from a different cloth."
To the right of the prior piece was a sequence of prints made with the use of different materials including colored pencils, pen, acrylic paint. She stated in the info cards that the background patterns were handmade too (applause to her cause my carpal tunnel is cringing). This series was called Capitalism Kills, as it does. The pieces explore the different ways the government has robbed black people and created inequality within our communities. I agree. This is definitely a statement towards contemporary reparations debates. I would really like to do an extension of these pieces as to all of the other different ways capitalism has killed "peace" overall, not just in the black community.
This next piece, I can relate whole-heartedly too. My upbringing is testimony to the problems that exist within the housing system for black people, especially concerning families on welfare and section eight. I appreciated this piece so much because much of my own childhood investigation explored housing relations. I learned about the 1968 Fair Housing Act which made discriminatory actions from landlords prosecutable. African Americans were able to rent properties but the housing conditions were not fit to meet the need of large families which led to overcrowding, deterioration and high crime rates. This is not talked about enough. The name of piece, Roach Motel, and the gold pot filled with plastic cockroaches was really provoking. The cotton piece reminded me of the type of housing that slaves on plantations had to live in, which horrible cannot even encompass. The chair however, I needed more info on because I wasn't sure if that was making a statement towards making whatever housing we can afford a throne or a statement towards the furniture most often used in black housing: straw.
Next to Roach Motel was a audio and video piece on a computer screen. This piece was called Know Your Rights. The video shows Douglas reciting The Black Child's Pledge. You can find it here. I love her reason for sharing this piece. I was very inspired by the patterns that Douglas creates. It really made me want to experiment with doing similar work in Adobe softwares.
For this next piece, Douglas created coins using clay and fire. She used watercolor, colored pencils, pen and ink for the large Oprah and Tubman prints. It was nice to see for representation but I don't know if I want to actually see Black Woman on the face of money because I do truly believe that profit and capitalism kills. I do believe in financial freedom in the sense that we have liberation from financial burdens.
I love reading books. I was very impressed with this piece because Douglas made these book holders which is something I don't think I've seen made before in relationship to black people. I appreciated Douglas' expression of love for musicians and afrofuturist education. It really engaged me by giving me more book recommendations to explore while also provoking a dialogue surrounding blackness outside of oppression, which is just as important.
These last photos are of when I actually met Kay Douglas. She was sooooo sweet and referred to me as a black enthusiast which I appreciate so much because I am, and she has made me even more! I smiled so much that my mouth started to hurt from joy. We exchanged contacts too and I really look forward to talking and engaging with her and her beautiful mind more! THANK YOU KIAYANI DOUGLAS!
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