Embedded Files
"How America Failed Us" is a series of 2 artworks and 2 series of artworks I selected created by people of color, primarily African American artists, demonstrating the different ways past and present in which our country (The United States) has failed people of color, specifically African Americans and Latino Americans. Through death, pain and intergenerational trauma, this curated gallery will walk you through real stories as to how it was like for people of color living in America and continues to be today. It shows how racism altered the lives of individuals of color for the worse and in some cases effectively ended it decades earlier than it would've otherwise. Each individual piece selected reflects the artists attempt to recognize the struggle, honor the lives lost but also expand the narrative beyond what our high school history textbooks include.
Artist Sanford Biggers Posing
Artist Sanford Biggers Posing
Sanford Biggers
Artist Titus Kaphar sitting in front of his artwork
Artist Titus Kaphar sitting in front of his artwork
Titus Kaphar
Artist Ken Gonzalez Day in front of a wall of art
Artist Ken Gonzalez Day in front of a wall of art
Ken Gonzalez Day
While each of these artists are of either African American or Latino, historically marginalized groups in the United States, it is important to note that only 9.2% of artists in the United States in the art world are African American. In the 19th century it was common to include pets in family portraits, but not their Black slaves. The first portrait of an African American wasn't until 1819 of Yarrow Mamout. As UCI Professor Bridget R Cooks points out in her chapter "What's Wrong with Musuems?.." of the Humanities Core Handbook: Worldbuilding 2022-2023, "the definitions of what is 'beautiful, natural, and legitimate' have excluded African Americans." Historically speaking, the art world whether it be the creators, or the subjects was not made to include Black individuals but rather to cater to the white Eurocentric standard of beauty and art. So aside from the topics the following pieces of art deal with "How America Failed Us" the artworld on its own also failed us by omitting us from it and portraying people of color such as myself in a negative light. The following artists included in this curation seek to reclaim that failure and make the artworld one of their own by altering existing works to change the viewer's gaze away from the status quo and using their platform to expand upon the narrow sighted version of history we know of and highlight issues that concern marginalized populations.
A Preview of The Works Selected
A Live Video of Sanford Biggers. Blossom, 2007 at the Brooklyn Musuem playing Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit"
Blossom (2007) by Sanford Biggers
Blossom (2007) by Sanford Biggers
Sanford Bigger’s art installation, Blossom, features a functional piano fused with a tree which some interpret as a human body, dirt and a bench that seems to have fallen over. During the artwork’s debut, it was shown playing “Strange Fruit” by artist Billie Holiday, a song that during its release, 1939, received threats when performed and sparked protest due to it graphic lyrics. The song's explicit lyrics brought attention to the violent lynchings of African Americans from 1877 to the 1950s.
Music: "Strange Fruit" - Billie Holiday
Medium: Steel, plastic and synthetic fibers, wood, MIDI player piano system, Zoopoxy, pigment, soil, modeling clay, polyurethane foam
The Name "Blossom"
The name of the artwork Blossom, the beginning stage of blossoming for plants, suggests that despite the violence and mutilation the tree featured has gone through, it will continue to grow. Much like Black Americans who have society rooting against their success from birth, the tree will blossom and Black Americans will flourish. Similar to the trees with “Blood on the leaves and blood at the root” that Billie Holiday mentions in her song "Strange Fruit" which references the black lives lost and changed as a result of lynching, such trees like the one included in Blossom regardless of having gone through so much trauma will again blossom. Naming the artwork reflects how Biggers wants to change the narrative regarding the lynching of Black Americans as a tragedy to one about strength, growth and blossoming.
An Apple Blossom Flower Blossoming
The Artists Inspiration
During the creation of this art installation Sanford Biggers was influenced by a graphic incident at a high school in Jena, Louisiana, in 2006 where 3 nooses ["one end of a rope tied to form a circle"] were hung from a tree on campus. This occurred just after a black student had asked if he could sit under the tree or if it was only for the white students that normally sat there. Following the incident, 6 black boys from the same high school referred to as the Jena 6 brutally beat a white student and were later charged for attempted murder. The incident sparked national protest and coverage over the harshness of the charges being influenced by their race. Though protests were successful as in lessening the sentence of the Jena 6, the installation Blossom was inspired specifically by the hanging of the 3 nooses.
A Protest Poster Advocating to "Free the Jena 6"
Noose (noun.): "one end of a rope tied to form a circle
that can be tightened round something such as a person's
neck to hang." (Cambridge Dictionary)
The noose symbolizes hate and America's history of public lynchings of African Americans between the late 19th century to late 20th century.
By hanging the nooses from the tree, the Louisiana high school individuals that orchestrated this incident were sending a clear anti-black hate message towards the school's black student population.
An image of a noose
A sideview of the same artwork
A zoomed out view of the same piece
Sanford Biggers. Blossom, 2007 at the Brooklyn Musuem
Initial Reactions
When this artwork was initially introduced to me through my seminar instructor, Professor Morse, my attention was drawn to the piano being cut in the middle with a tree. “Why is the piano there?” “What kind of tree is in the artwork?” “Is the tree alive?” “Why does the bench look as if it's fallen?” were all questions that flooded my mind immediately afterwards. The installation was unconventional and unnatural but a part of me was incredibly drawn to it. It reminded me of the common reference of the rose that grew from concrete. It's something that shouldn't exist or be alive, but it was. So naturally I was intrigued, I wanted to know why. I knew there was more to this piece of artwork than met my eye, a deeper meaning but I wasn’t sure as to what that was. These questions guided my research on the installation.
My Final Impression
Looking at this installation now, I don’t see just a tree growing with a piano cutting a piano through it or even the rose that grew from concrete. I hear pain, I see blood, death and violence, but I also see beauty, hope and blossoming. I see our country’s shameful but critical past as well as how that past continues to linger now. Even though one of the events that influenced Sanford Bigger’s Blossom, the Jena 6, occurred over 15 years ago at this point in time it signals how much racist beliefs and practices from less century ago that should no longer exist still linger. I see how America needs to be constantly reminded of their past to let people know that such violent and racist practices are not okay. Biggers is able to remind his audience of such a dark and ongoing past in such a visually appealing that doesn't require explicit imagery and honors the Black lives lost on trees across America.
The Wonder Gaze (2002) by Ken Gonzalez
The Wonder Gaze (2002) by Ken Gonzalez
The following nearly century old black and white photoshopped image features a large group of white men and women in the mid 1930’s gathering around a tree. A majority of the men and women included in the image seem to engage in conversation, while others are observed to be looking up at the tree and others in the direction of us, the viewer. A site where the lynching of a Latino took place, the Latino artist has purposely removed the body of the corpse using Adobe Photoshop to shift the viewers attention away from the victim and toward the perpetrator. The missing body in the following photograph as well as the rest of those included in the series serve as a metaphor for the erasure of the lynching of Latinos from American history.
The Wonder Gaze (St James Park, CA. 1935), Erased Lynching Series (2002)
Series: Erased Lynching
Medium: Print and installation
The Name "The Wonder Gaze"
Like the title of the edited photograph suggests, The Wonder Gaze, the name pushes the audience to focus on the gaze of the audience of the very public lynching made a spectacle and their seemingly positive reactions to such a violent death. By including the location in which the lynching took place and names of the victims in other photographs featured in the multi-work series, Erased Lynching, the title provokes viewers to think beyond lynching as being targeted towards the African American community in the South. When rather the act of lynching occurred across the United States even in progressive states like California and commonly occurred with Latinos and other minority groups. By naming the artwork The Wonder Gaze, we the viewer are forced to "wonder" about everything but the victim.
His Inspiration
This particular artwork along with the rest of the photoshopped images included in the series began as a response to anti-Latino vigilante activity near the Mexican border. As artist Ken Gonzalez’s research on the topic continued, his research eventually expanded beyond anti-Latino vigilante activity and into the unknown lynchings of Latinos. Through Gonzalez's monumental work, he expanded the recorded cases of lynchings in California from 50 to 350. He also increased the awareness of the act of lynching in the 1890’s to 1930’s not only being limited to African Americans but to Latinos, Asians and Native Americans as a way for whites to maintain order at the time. Images such as these were popularized and used as postcards sent to friends and family across the country. Though not initially his goal, his series Erased Lynching and the photograph The Wonder Gaze were created as a response to his research findings and as a way to publicize such tragedies that would've otherwise gone unnoticed.
The Wonder Gaze, Erased Lynching Series (2002) being featured at an exhibit
For those interested in looking at the entire series of Erased Lynching:
Ken Gonzales-Day's "Erased Lynching" - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Initial Reactions
I stumbled upon this series of photographs, Erased Lynching, when looking at artworks featured in exhibitions about lynching. I clicked on a random link during my google search and skimmed through the various images included in the series. This particular image, the first I saw, struck me as unusual. Already knowing the extremely heavy topic the series was based on, I mentally prepared myself to potentially see a graphic image, and I didn’t. Looking at the photograph, I knew something was missing. The art series was about lynchings in America, there was a tree in the photograph, where lynchings typically took place but there wasn’t a body. Naturally I asked myself “Why?” “Is this just a normal image?” Rather than focusing on the free, like Gonzalez intended, my focus shifted to the people. In looking at the group of the people in the photograph I asked myself, "Why are they gathered as if this is a social gathering or something to be celebrated? Is this supposed to be a good thing? Is this normal for them? Why don’t they look scared?" Their impressions and reactions to such violent event a made me uncomfortable and thus led me to include it in this series.
My Final Impression
Knowing the background behind the following artwork is both troubling and terrifying. As a Latina myself, I was never aware of how romanticized and glorified lynching was in that particular as well as how common the lynching Latinos was in California, a state historically known for being liberal. Looking at the artwork now with all the background knowledge necessary, I’m even more interested by the reactions of those witnessing the lynching in the photograph than anything. This artwork, if anything, is the most troubling to me of all those I selected because of how buried all this information was. If it wasn't for Ken Gonzalez or even this assignment, I would've never have come to know of this troubling information. When looking at the photograph itself, the style of the artwork in this series reminds me of the work of Titus Kaphar, where he purposely omits parts of famous paintings as a means to redirect the audience’s attention. The only difference is Gonzalez's medium is photography whereas Kaphar's main medium is paintings.
The Jerome Project (2014) by Titus Kaphar
The Jerome Project (2014) by Titus Kaphar
5 Portraits from The Jerome Project on display
Each of the portraits take part in a multi-part art series called The Jerome Project which features a recreation of the mugshot of each Jerome against a gold background. Similar to the Byzantine tradition of painting each of the following Jerome's are partly covered in black tar. The black tar initially representing the amount of time each Jerome spent incarcerated, was later revised by the Kaphar to symbolize how the lives of each Jerome were permanently changed and inevitably silenced due to their lack of ability to live a normal life post-incarceration. With the black tar covering their mouths, each Jerome is inherently unable to speak for themselves.
Medium: Oil, gold leaf, and tar on wood panel
Jerome I (2014)
Jerome V (2014)
Jerome II
Note: the individual biographies of each Jerome could not be found
Behind the Scenes
The following series began as an attempt for the artist, Titus Kaphar to find out more on his estranged father. In his research on his father who he discovered has been incarcerated, the artist stumbled upon a website where he encountered the mugshots of 99 other incarcerated black men with the same first and last name as his father, Jerome. As a representation of how the criminal justice system disproportionately affects and targets black men in America, Kaphar created the series of portraits based on the dozens of mugshots of men currently or previously incarcerated with the same name Jerome that he encountered in his research. A ongoing work that was relevant 9 years ago and continues to be relevant now, each of these portraits gives the audience an insight into the pain each Jerome endured. His series became so successful that he continued it with a new phase called, The Jerome Project (Asphalt and Chalk) .
Here are a few links for those interested in looking at the entire series of The Jerome Project:
A painting of Jesus Christ using the Byzantine art style
Byzantine Art Tradition
Each of the portraits featured in this phase of the series were modeled after the Byzantine Tradition of religious icon paintings, a style of art popularized by the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century. Typically featuring religious figures such as the Virgin from the waist up with gold backgrounds staring straight at the audience, this style of painting emphasized the wealth and hierarchy of Christianity. By using this style of painting to embody each Jerome, Kaphar depicts the men as sacred. He emphasizes how valuable their lives were and remain by equating them to scared religious figures and materials as valuable as gold. Yet the facial expressions of the Jerome's in the portrait and the portraits themselves being a recreation of a mugshot, a type of image with less value, counteract the sacred value this style of art is typically used for. That's to show that despite each Jerome being labeled a criminal, their lives still maintain value because they're only criminals since the American justice system failed them and labeled them so since birth. They were never given a real chance to prove themselves otherwise.
Panagia Portaitissa painted icon
Initial Reactions
When I initially encountered this series of artworks, I was immediately troubled by the black area covering their faces. “What was its purpose? What kind of material is being used? Why are some faces covered with more black material than others?” My sight was drawn to their eyes and their emotionless facial expressions counteracted by the extremely vibrant shade of gold in the background. These portraits weren't the average portraits I was familiar with smiling faces. Aside from these questions that intruded my thoughts, prior to going into a deep dive into these artworks, I already went in knowing that they had some connection with the artist's father in addition to just sharing the same name. Knowing this information, I remained intrigued, and I wanted to know more. What was the connection between all of these men?
My Final Impression
Knowing all that I do know about the history of why Titus Kaphar created this series as well as the style of painting and the significance of the black tar, these portraits feels very personal. Almost as if I'm intruding into their lives and their personal space. Looking into their eyes feels wrong. Even though I don’t know but would like to know the story of each Jerome, what they were accused of as well as how long their criminal sentence is, it feels disappointing to know that all the Jerome's were black. I hoped that at least one of them wouldn't be so I wouldn't have to reface the fact that our country failed all of these men just like it's failed millions of other black individuals. Each Jerome could've led better lives and been more than just a criminal only if the United States didn't label them as criminals to begin with.
For those interested in looking at the entire series of Erased Lynching:
Ken Gonzales-Day's "Erased Lynching" - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Reflection
Reflection
In completing this archive activity, like other Humanities Core students, I've found a new appreciation for art, art curators and those who select artworks for exhibitions. It's more than just picking artworks that are aesthetically pleasing, it requires a lot of research and reflection. It requires asking yourself "What message do I want to get across? How do I get this message across? What is the big takeaway?" Through this art curation process of purposely selecting just three pieces of artwork myself for an extremely long amount of time, I can't image the months of tireless work it takes for museums and curators to have an exhibition. With my particular art curation, I've learned a lot about the deep-rooted history of racism in America beyond what my primary and high school education taught me as well as how hard our country has historically tried to hide it instead of acknowledging it and correcting it. I've learned how it is through the work of artists like Sanford Biggers that we the public have been able to learn about such topics by not only presenting the public with information but encouraging them to go on and conduct research of their own to engage with their artwork beyond just the surface level. Beyond just what's painted on the canvas. Moving forward I hope to engage with art more meaningfully besides just reading the descriptions and forgetting about the piece when I get home. I hope to do my own research and expand the lengths of knowledge like the artists of the works intended its audience to.
Works Cited
Works Cited
Berger, Maurice. “Lynchings in the West, Erased from History and Photos.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Dec. 2012, https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/lynchings-in-the-west-erased-from-history-and-photos/.
Biggers, Sanford. “Blossom.” Brooklyn Museum, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/186988.
“Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit.” Genius, https://genius.com/Billie-holiday-strange-fruit-lyrics.
“Byzantine Art.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/art/Byzantine-art.
chung123video. “‘Blossom’ by Sanford Biggers - 3D Binaural Audio.” YouTube, YouTube, 9 Aug. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWVvljDR_tA.
Elassar, Alaa. “Why the Noose Is Such a Potent Symbol of Hate.” CNN, Cable News Network, 23 June 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/23/us/noose-hate-symbol-racism-trnd/index.html.
“Get the Job You Really Want.” Zippia, https://www.zippia.com/painter-jobs/demographics/.
Gonzalez Day, Ken. “Erased Lynchings.” Ken Gonzalez-Day, 9 Apr. 2022, https://kengonzalesday.com/projects/erased-lynchings/.
Johnson, Ken. “Smile and Metaphor, Crossing Borough Lines.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Oct. 2011, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/arts/design/sanford-biggerss-art-in-a-two-borough-exhibition.html.
Kaphar, Titus. “The Jerome Project (My Loss).” Brooklyn Museum, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/218233.
“Noose.” Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/noose.
ReelinInTheYears66. “Billie Holiday - ‘Strange Fruit’ Live 1959 [Reelin' in the Years Archives].” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Feb. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DGY9HvChXk.
Staff, NPR. “Race, Violence ... Justice? Looking Back at Jena 6.” NPR, NPR, 30 Aug. 2011, https://www.npr.org/2011/08/30/140058680/race-violence-justice-looking-back-at-jena-6#:~:text=In%20August%202006%2C%20a%20black%20student%20in%20Jena%2C,of%20the%20suspects%20were%20charged%20with%20attempted%20murder.
“Titus Kaphar.” The Studio Museum in Harlem, 30 Jan. 2020, https://studiomuseum.org/exhibition/titus-kaphar-jerome-project.
“Titus Kaphar: The Jerome Project.” Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/experience/titus-kaphar-jerome-project/gallery-guide.
Trent, Dr. Mary, and Dr. Mary Trent. “Ken Gonzales-Day, Erased Lynching Series.” Smarthistory, 1 Nov. 2022, https://smarthistory.org/ken-gonzales-day-erased-lynching-series/.
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