Lost statements: final
title: untitled as of yet
materials: stepping stool, black silk drapery, plaster of Paris (hair pick) molds.
this art piece that i assembled was more symbolic than visually appeasing in nature. over this semester i have been taking a African arts class. the class touches on the topic of the history of African art and its rise to popularity. But, in the art itself, like all art of every culture, was tied deeply with the history of African and its people. I've grown to have learned a lot from the class and have come to many enlightening discoveries. these discoveries has allowed me to gain knowledge of African-American history as well since they surprising draw from one another as well. thus, i wanted to make a art piece that signified a bit of what i have learned during my research. My aim was to make an image that was very simple in appearance, like something you might casually see if passing by on a busy city, nothing in your face but rather to the side. that was an intention to show case how the past history of people of color, like myself, has been placed in the background. always present in society and yet ignored by the majority. not too often or if not at all is black history really given mention or notoriety. schools have often given the usual martin Luther king jr or Rosa Parks event as the grand scope of black American history. and this is basically solely for the event of "black history" month. yet, throughout the year we study not only American history but European history to the very foundations of its rise to power. yet, we don't even bring into mention African history and its influence, besides slavery, to the world. as a black man I was surprised on how little knowledge of Africa I contained. its kingdoms, their kings/queens, their inventions, the wars fought, and their Art etc. So, to add this piece i wanted to create a image that was synonymous with black people as a whole. I chose to create plaster molds of picks. this is something that is very unique to only African-Americans because they were practically designed with the black persons distinct hair in mind. no other race, from my knowledge, uses pick to comb their hair otherwise. furthermore, I used plaster of Paris as a symbolic reference to multiple issues that of being dissolved in society. the slow decimation of discrimination, the interweaving of cultures, and the speculated (not sure if its true) attempt at eradicating black people and their culture through interracial breeding (this ironically was mentioned unintentionally by a classmate of Asian decent. who brought up a similar issue of their cultures attempt to eradicate the darker skinned people of his country by having them breed with people of lighter complexions). i did this by making various mixtures of plaster and water. at the base i for the first mold, i used a high amount of plaster with minimal water. i then increased the water content until the last mold was practically brittle to the point that it could hold itself together. i wanted to make the mold look more like feet, so I added a flat background layer to make this appearance possible. thus, as we climb to newer heights of knowledge and understanding( the ladder) the past ideologies vanish. the black silky drapery was solely for the purpose of representing the rich history of black culture and history. this piece wasn't created with the intentions of dividing or invoking racist idioms but to bring awareness to history itself.