Artist Statement

Holding Up the Past

Allyson Markham

My art piece is a canvas with slaves holding up a college called VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University). I cut out some black pieces of paper that are men kneeling down. I also cut out a building of VCU College and glued them onto a canvas so that the men looked like they were holding up the college. Then I painted a border and chains in the background to show they're slaves. I'm trying to show how they are slaves with chains. 

My art piece is inspired by an event that happened in the past, but people still think about it currently. VCU, a college in Virginia, used slaves to clean, do laundry, and build and fix buildings. That's how they got to where they are now. They were carried on the backs of slaves without touching work. VCU didn't even pay them for their work. Most of the slaves were of African-American descent. In my piece, they are holding up the college because the college is where it is now only because of the slaves. 

In my piece, I am trying to show how the slaves in VCU are holding up the college. This piece is supposed to be anti-slavery because in the past, slaves had held up a lot, not just one college. However, we need to remember that slaves held up so many things in the past; we need to recognize that America was built unjustly.