Untitled: Four Etchings
by Glenn Ligon , 1992
Soft ground etchings, aquatint, spitbite and aquatint in black on Rives BFK paper
Glenn Ligon is a visual artist and Bronx, New York native. In Ligon’s pieces, he addresses social and cultural issues, specifically the subjects of race, sexuality and violence. Many of Ligon’s pieces are done with hand made stencils, and often pull from texts, although many are ideas of his own. Ligon has been featured in shows and galleries of some of the most prestigious museums across the globe. One of his pieces even hung in the personal quarters of President Barack Obama during his presidency. In his piece Untitled: Four Etchings, Ligon places the words “I do not always feel colored” and “ I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background” repeatedly in black lettering against a white paper. This text is from Zora Neale Hurston's 1928 poem, "How it Feels to be Colored Me." The contrasting blackness of the text and white background emphasize the message of the text. As the words are constantly repeated, towards the bottom of the image, the text is blurred and smeared. This could represent the frustration and anger of the constantly repeated words falling upon deaf ears. It may also represent that, as the white background becomes blacker with the addition of ink, the text loses its meaning- when against a black background, the subject doesn’t feel colored, and hence the message is not legible. This frustration and way of thought is expressed in the majority of Rankine’s book, and this image seems to be a summary of its message as a whole. Specifically, she had alluded to the phrase repeatedly in her discussion of Serena and Venus Williams, two black women in the white-dominated professional tennis culture.
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