The BlackMan in Jim Crow Amerika
This is a series of 10 portraits I was inspired to create upon pre-viewing the '08 TBG summer line. Their clothing is always provocative and like fine-art itself, leaving me compelled to take on the idea of responding visually.
The line dealt with themes relating to "Jim Crow" the race-based laws that maintained a "separate but equal" stance which most Confederate states in the US enacted after the abolishment of slavery.
I chose to create images that would challenge the viewer who considers themselves quite knowledgeable of this period in US history as well as those who have no prior knowledge.
Working mainly from period photographs, I wanted to bring a new perspective to these well known images, one that simplified the composition yet created a deeper and more complex sense of the subjects’ lives. Drawing inspiration from the graphic nature of the Jim Crow Couture line, I felt it important to work with portraits and devise small surrealistic touches that would speak to the urgency and oftentimes depression found in the soul of black men fighting to be recognized as such— men.
My mediums of choice rose mainly from working in acrylic paint on canvas, but grew to include ink, paint marker, pencil, collage and aerosol. The approach to each piece was immediately individualistic, and through the close study of my human subjects, the physical portraits in paint eventually evolved. My use of black & white, I believe, added another layer of relevance to the struggle my subjects faced within the confines of “Jim Crow” segregation laws.
Make no mistake, this series is unapologetically about race, but more specifically, it’s about the wider male African-American experience of Jim Crow and the scars that have yet to heal because of it. That said, it is hoped that the collection is not lazily perceived as an angry body of work but one whose subject is clearly deserving of valid and fervent discussion.
The line dealt with themes relating to "Jim Crow" the race-based laws that maintained a "separate but equal" stance which most Confederate states in the US enacted after the abolishment of slavery.
I chose to create images that would challenge the viewer who considers themselves quite knowledgeable of this period in US history as well as those who have no prior knowledge.
Working mainly from period photographs, I wanted to bring a new perspective to these well known images, one that simplified the composition yet created a deeper and more complex sense of the subjects’ lives. Drawing inspiration from the graphic nature of the Jim Crow Couture line, I felt it important to work with portraits and devise small surrealistic touches that would speak to the urgency and oftentimes depression found in the soul of black men fighting to be recognized as such— men.
My mediums of choice rose mainly from working in acrylic paint on canvas, but grew to include ink, paint marker, pencil, collage and aerosol. The approach to each piece was immediately individualistic, and through the close study of my human subjects, the physical portraits in paint eventually evolved. My use of black & white, I believe, added another layer of relevance to the struggle my subjects faced within the confines of “Jim Crow” segregation laws.
Make no mistake, this series is unapologetically about race, but more specifically, it’s about the wider male African-American experience of Jim Crow and the scars that have yet to heal because of it. That said, it is hoped that the collection is not lazily perceived as an angry body of work but one whose subject is clearly deserving of valid and fervent discussion.
