Danielle Scott: Kinfolk had a strong impact on me from the moment I saw the first few pieces revealed during setting up the exhibit. The ancestral recalling and nostalgic presences portrayed through her pieces are inspiring and gave rise to an already igniting interest in black art. Recently in the last three years, I have been looking for a place to begin my research on black history and how to incorporate that into my work. It is through this show and Danielle Scott's words that I have been introduced to an altogether novel way of presenting historical truths through the arts.
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| Queen of Angels 2020. Mixed medium assemblage. |
The first piece I was drawn to before I had any knowledge of the message behind it was Queen of Angels 2020, a collage of photos, blueprints, and sourced documents bound by a centered crowned photograph of Scott’s mentor of 26 years, Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer. This mixed-media assemblage is a homage to Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer and is brought together on a vintage ironing board crafted by a woman of color. Around Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer’s head is a gold leaf crown of sunflowers, a reference to the sunflowers Scott brought to her mentor every year on August 15, Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer’s birthday. Assembled in the blouse of Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer is a collage of photographs of her children and husband, and the sourced documents that the photograph of Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer rests on inform the viewer of who Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer was, and the extraordinary life she had as a mother, a leader, a militant woman, an artist, a founder, and instructor. There are blueprints in the background that show the Queen of Angels School of Newark where she taught. Above her crown at the top of the ironing board is a spout. This spout symbolizes the giving of knowledge and intellect, so much of which Scott has expressed was poured into her for 26 years. Queen of Angels is a tribute to Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer, her bequest, and her contribution to the history of art, to her mentee, and family. Scott portrays this assemblage on a vintage ironing board because it embodies a woman's endowment to her household and her family. It also symbolizes her dedication to the people around her and the world, and a woman's prosperity. From traveling and research, Scott sourced documents and blueprints that she carefully assembled and selectively pieced together so that when a viewer looks at the piece, they are seeing who Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer is. Scott mentions she was an oil painter before she found mixed media assemblage. So, her use of photography was interesting to me because I honor a loved one by painting them. I feel taking the time to paint them feels like I have poured myself into completing that painting, but I do understand why she uses photographs instead. Scott wants us to see Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer as who she was, not just how Scott has seen her. A quote from Susan Sontag’s excerpt, “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge –and therefore, like power.", painting is an interpretation by the artist, but a photograph is knowledge and is more powerful than a painting because it speaks more words. Said best by Sontag, “…a painting or a prose description can never be other than a narrowly selective interpretation, a photograph can be treated as a narrowly selective transparency”. When I first saw this assemblage, I was reminded of my mother. She was the first person that popped up in my head without any context, aside from the sight of the gold leaf and the paper sunflowers to create the crown. Two mediums my mother uses in her paintings. Now with an understanding of the piece, I know why it sits with me as one of the pieces I connected with first.
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| Celia and Bazile Churchill 2022. Mixed medium assemblage and resin |
For the second piece, I was torn between Celestine 2022 and Celia and Bazile Churchill 2022. They are both very beautiful, and I was drawn to the vibrancy in their clothing and the very expressive looks on the faces of the four little girls. Especially the beautiful smile on the little girl in Celia and Bazile Churchill. This is a mixed-medium assemblage encased in resin and framed with charred wood. Like Queen of Angels, this artwork is a collage of photography and source documents, but the documents laid in the background are what Scott called the “Freed People of Color Database”, papers that had to be carried by freed slaves at all times. These were the names of all these people that Scott discovered and included in her works as a part of each work's identity. The photograph is of a smiling mother and daughter named Celia Churchill and Bazile Churchill. Both mother and daughter are dressed in jewelry and luxurious clothing. The daughter is in a bulky black lace dress and pearls and the mother is in a gold rose-pattern skirt with a gold crown similar to Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer’s crown but this one is dressed in jewelry and mesh material. I feel this piece takes the mother and child and places them in a position of independence rather than in a position of subservience. A quote from Tris McCall says, “…identity is constituted “not outside but within representation,” and invites us to see film “not as a second-order mirror held up to reflect what already exists, but as the form a representation which is able to constitute us as new kinds of subjects, and thereby enable us to discover who we are.” (pg. 131) I pulled this quote because I feel this is what Danielle Scott did for the mother and daughter in her work when she dressed them in these beautiful gowns. As if she is giving them a new and better identity that goes with the smile on the little girl, placing them in a different perspective but still showing us who this person really was.
3 Quotes (in the essay):
1. “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge –and therefore, like power." Susan Sontag
2. “While a painting or a prose description can never be other than a narrowly selective interpretation, a photograph can be treated as a narrowly selective transparency.” Susan Sontag
These two quotes I chose in relation to Queen of Angels because of Scott’s use of photography rather than using a painting to complete the assemblage with an image of Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer. I like the use of the image because it speaks a lot of words and shows the viewer that Ms. Gladys Barker Grauer is going to college and that this actually occurred. It is what she looked like, what she was wearing, and how she looked. I don’t feel a painting would have captured this more effectively than this photograph has.
3. “…identity is constituted “not outside but within representation,” and invites us to see film “not as a second-order mirror held up to reflect what already exists, but as the form a representation which is able to constitute us as new kinds of subjects, and thereby enable us to discover who we are.” (pg. 131. Tris McCall)
I chose this quote to connect to Celia and Bazile Churchill because I feel that the way Danielle Scott assembled the artwork, and the fabrics and different materials she chose to use were used to give this mother and daughter a new societal identity.
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| Identity Selfie 2023. digital collage |
My nationality and family's influence inform my SELFIE on who I am as an artist and individual. I am Trinidadian and Black. I say Black because I do identify as both even though some may say it's the same thing. But in my family, the cultures clash a lot. My grandfather is black and my grandmother's side is Trinidadian. They both have very different understandings of how they should live their lives. I embrace both sides. I'm wearing red, yellow, and green to honor black history. This shows that I am very aware of how black and brown people struggled. I am interested in learning more. The flowers over my eyes that is in a different style, represents my mother. I do have a lot of her personality, and she's the reason I chose to be an artist. The words in the back are affirmations that are repeated, like "I am a woman, I am beautiful, I am my worth...", to represent my struggle in building my self-esteem, but I remember who I am and who my family has created.
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