Professor Cook's lectures and essay explore a range of African American artists and their works. At the center of this exploration is two key questions: How do these artists break the imposed standards of what "museum-worthy" art is, and how do they speak to African American history and social realities? 

The Quilts of Gee's Bend are an assortment of quilts created by the women of Gee's Bend, a community in rural Alabama that descends from enslaved people that worked on a plantation there. The artists in this case, rural, impoverished African American women, are far from the majority of famous artists, who are overwhelmingly white men of middle- and upper-class origin. Furthermore, the fact that their works are quilts is in contrast to "high art", as quilts serve the purpose of providing warmth and comfort and aren't a "pure" type of art like a painting on a canvas. Despite this, the quilts of Gee's Bend would go on to be presented in numerous acclaimed museums, breaking and barriers and asking, what should be considered art, who can be an artist? Additionally, these women carry on a legacy of quilting from their enslaved ancestors, who themselves inherited traditions from their original African communities. In this way, the quilts are a reflection of the unique and deep history African Americans have, as well as reminder of how traditions persist and evolve through generations.

Sanford Biggers is one of the African American artists we've covered this unit, with the exhibition of his we focused on being Codeswitch. However, the one I'm going to highlight for this entry is Meet Me on the Equinox, as I find a lot of technically interesting aspects to its digital representation.

Presented by the Marianne Boesky Gallery, Meet Me on the Equinox is Biggers' third solo exhibition, pulling works from his Codex and Chimera series. The Codex series consists of the quilt-based works that were discussed in lecture and are inspired by the quilts of Gee's Bend and the theory that quilts were used as part of the Underground Railroad. Meanwhile, the Chimera series features marble sculptures that combine Classical European busts and figures with traditional African masks and bodily portrayals to explore how the body has been historically portrayed and how myth and perception is influenced by them. While these styles differ greatly, their commonality is in their discussion of art and historical narratives. In light of this, Meet Me on the Equinox explores the origins of myth and how they can be molded by factors like perspective.

On the Marriane Boesky Gallery's website, the first thing that appears when you click on the exhibit for Meet Me on the Equinox is a video of Biggers himself describing the exhibition and the meaning behind the displayed works. Through a digital medium, this allows us to hear directly from the artist himself, providing a face and voice behind the artwork and making the artist feel human and relatable. It also lets us hear the context, inspiration, and intention from the artist, which works better than having to read a wall of text, or to lack any explanation at all. 

In a more convoluted view, another way digital representation can accentuate the viewing experience is by forcing the viewer into certain perspectives. This seems strange, that one can improve their experience by being able to see less, but the idea here is that there is often artistic intent in the way different works are positioned in 3-dimensional space. In Meet Me on the Equinox, there are black lines drawn on the walls and floor. These lines by themselves don't seem to indicate anything, but from a specific angle they line up to frame the gallery in a particular way, serving as a commentary on how a change in perspective is necessary to cut through confusion and clutter to come to a satisfying answer. Not seeing this angle would deprive someone of the full meaning behind the gallery, and so by making one of the selected photographs of the gallery be one from an angle where the lines fall into place, it assists in getting the artist's intent across.