PROJECTS
The Fire This Time
The Fire This Time is a performance art ritual that is in conversation with James Baldwin’s 1963 book, The Fire Next Time, in which Baldwin warns that if this nation does not grant lasting change to Black people this time, there will be fire the next time.
The fires that accompany the current social unrest we are living with is a testament to the fact that the next time is this time.
Shangó and Eshu-Elegba in the Atlanta Courthouse
The architects of the City Court of Atlanta have designed an eclectic building grounded in the spirit of the Federalism–the architectural style most associated with public buildings in the United States for over 200 years. My design for the exterior railings and medallions acknowledges this architectural tradition, but significantly broadens its visual vocabulary to honor cultures not included in Federalism’s European-based sources. My goal has been to obligate the Federal style to more accurately reflect the history of this nation, as well as the demographics and socio-historical changes in Atlanta at the dawn of this new century.
Statesman/ architect Thomas Jefferson may have been the first postmodernist in America, long before the advent of 20th century Modernism. Like postmodern designers today, Jefferson, in his role as architect, was inspired by the ideals of democracy and egalitarianism, as well as by ancient civilizations. As a “Founding Father”, he faced two design challenges: how to develop a unified character in the context of the many nations and cultures represented by the young nation’s citizens; and, at the same time, how to create a sense of past on which to build a legitimate and appropriate identity. While serving as United States Ambassador to France, Jefferson found his answer to both challenges in the neoclassical style popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe.
Neoclassicism proved to be useful. Most European-Americans of the period accepted and admired an “ancient” past that combined elements of both Greek and Roman cultures. Jefferson was instrumental in introducing the neoclassical style of the United States. As the national government began to take shape, Federalism–the adaption of neoclassicism in the United States–became the preferred architectural style of public buildings across the nation. Domestic architecture–particularly in the designs for estates and mansions of the wealthy–also adopted the style.
The Federal style, however, failed to truly embrace all peoples in the United States. Ultimately, Jefferson’s vision was a narrow one, distorted by his inability or refusal to appreciate the greatness of the ancient past of Africans and American Indians as worthy of being incorporated in the architectural design of this new nation. Thus, my contribution to the new City Court of Atlanta is a design for architectural details that considerably broaden the building’s visual vocabulary beyond Federalism’s Greco-Roman original sources.
Courthouses are essentially crossroads–public places where issues of social justice are adjudicated, and where fundamental changes dramatically altering the future direction of our lives can occur. In response, I have drawn upon the mythology of the Yoruba, a West African civilization that has contributed greatly to the cultural traditions of the United States and all of the Americas. Two Yoruba deities known as “orishas” speak to the courthouse’s purpose and daily activities: Orisha Eshu-Elegba, the guardian of crossroads; and Shangó, the orisha in charge of social justice. Both are referenced in the designs.
The Eyes
The shape of the eyes in both the railings and the medallions are drawn from cowrie shells that are used as the eyes and mouth in sculptural representations of Eshu-Elegba. As the guardian of the crossroad at the courthouse, these eyes will oversee the carriage of justice. Conceptually, this is a comment on the Greco-Roman notion of the need for justice to be blind. Justice is frequently represented as a blindfolded woman with balanced scales in one hand, and a sword in the other. While it is true that in a perfect world justice should be blind, it is also true that in an imperfect democracy, it is prudent that we remain both vigilant and vocal in order to insure that the delivery of justice is impartial.
The Lightning Bolts
The iconography associated with Shangó’s role as the adjudicator of justice and nemesis of evil is the lighting bolt. The railings incorporate lightning bolts in the design pattern of triangular shapes below Eshu-Elegba’s vigilant eyes.
The Voyage of the Delfina
The Voyage of the Delfina is a performance art ritual that imagines the traditional names and villages from which approximately 159 abducted Africans were taken from an unknown port on the west coast of Africa on the slaver Delfina to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This project addresses the problem of erasing the anonymity of captured Africans by providing them with an identity. Participants – students, faculty and artists – were required to research traditional names and villages of abducted Africans. Example: it is possible that someone named Babatunde from Lagos might have been on the Delfina. It is also believed that one third of the enslaved perished at sea.
Artist Contemplating Torture
Artist Contemplating Torture was initially conceived as a protest statement against the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela during the apartheid era in South Africa under the title Artist Contemplating the Fate of Those Who Speak of Freedom. It was first presented in New York City’s Lower East Side as part of a Plexus Art Co-Opera in 1986 at CUANDO and later that year at Kenkeleba Gallery. The following year the work was recreated for Franklin Furnace aboard the Staten Island Ferry and then at Fashion Moda in the Bronx. For these performances, Polaroid photos were taken of the artists and their images were placed on an “altar” installation in front of the seated artist.
The work has now been redesigned as a protest statement against the torture of innocent victims worldwide. This new project was first presented in the rainforest at Las Orquídeas Sculpture Park in Portobelo, Panama in June 2008 and at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town, South Africa on the 11th of July – Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday and later at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. For this project participants in the production gather the names of tortured victims from Amnesty International and local sources.
Artist Contemplating: Black Lives Matter - Memphis
Artist Contemplating: Black Lives Matter – Memphis is the most recent version of my Artist Contemplating series and the first Black Lives Matter version of the series. It was presented at the University of Memphis in collaboration with local artists, students and faculty.
New venues are being sought to continue this series.
The Return of the Ancestral Messenger Through the "Door of No Return"
Plexus is an international network of artists that create collaborative art projects worldwide. On December 10, 2000 I was invited by the Senegalese chapter of Plexus International to contribute a performance art work for the International Human Rights Day at La Maison des Ésclaves – The House of Slaves on Gorée Island. La Maison des Ésclaves was one of the last places in Africa where captured Africans were quartered prior to shipment to America. I maintain a studio in Portobelo, Panama, a former port of disembarkation for captured Africans during the colonial period.
My Plexus identity is the Ancestral Messenger. This performance art ritual confronts the betrayal of enslaved Africans by their leaders by returning as an allegorical being through the “door of no return.”
The Birth of Love
The Birth of Love is a multi-media installation that attempts to capture that feeling we have the moment we realize that we are in love.
Los abanicos de Portobelo - The Portobelo Fans
Los abanicos of Portobelo – the Portobelo fans – is a site-specific, bio-degradable, environmental art installation that was installed at Las Orquídeas Sculpture Park in Portobelo, Panama in 2010. The artist’s intent was to create a work that blended into the rainforest and while made by a human appears to be in harmony with the birds and the vegetation.
Requiem in Portobelo
The Requiem Series explores the use of the four elements of nature to make art. In these works fire serves as a cleansing element.
Requiem in Sumter
Sanctuary on the Beltline
In the last decade I have been exploring the idea of sanctuary in my art. This body of work is an outgrowth of my desire to create eco-friendly spaces in urban places to serve as a refuge for city dwellers. My sanctuary series is also congruent with my life long desire of making art more accessible to non-traditional museum/gallery audiences.
Essentially, the sanctuary series is a body of environmental art installations created as sacro-secular spaces with the primary goal of providing a green cathedral wherein viewers can have aesthetic and spiritual experiences with nature and art.
Sanctuary @ Spelman
Sanctuary @ America Beach
Bearing Witness - Atlanta
In 2012 I was one of fifteen artists selected nationwide by the State Department and the Bronx Museum of the Arts to represent the United States abroad. smARTpower builds on Secretary of State Clinton's vision of using the arts as part of "smart power" diplomacy. I was assigned to Cairo, Egypt. Bearing Witness - Atlanta is a performance art ritual that served as a preface to my smARTpower Bearing Witness project that was presented in Cairo.
Bearing Witness / A Choice of Tools
smARTpower - Media Balady, Cairo, Egypt
Inspired by Gordon Park's autobiography, A Choice of Weapons, I created a cellphone photography workshop for the teangers of Media Balady to bear witness to their lives. Project Manager Nagla Samir made it possible to publish the results of the workshop as a photography book. On the last day of the workshop we had a book signing party. The young people of Egypt are amazing!