Just before the great shut down of society -(seems like another era now) when visiting a gallery was the norm. I got to experience this exhibition. It was on the last day of W E B Dubois (1868—1963), Charting Black Lives at the House of Illustration, curated by Paul Goodwin and Katie McCurrach. The display of the exhibition I believe was the work of Alexander Boxhill. W E B Dubois, historian, sociologist and widely referenced intellectual, author of The Souls of Black Folk, had engaged a team of students from Atlanta University to create a series of graphic information; charts and pictograms. “…a display of 63 striking hand-drawn charts. These radical diagrams used experimental visuals to present a confronting and complex picture of African Americans over the four decades since emancipation from slavery.” Du Bois had been commissioned to contribute to the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. This scientific data to refute racist myths was a remarkable feat before digitalisation. The documentation is eye-catching, intriguing - sobering even. Hand graphics, lettering, colour rendering, geometry, calculations - all comes together. The display was like turning the leaves of an expanded, upright book - except that these leaves were wooden-framed and hinged. Black and white archive photographs of people going about their lives accompanied the charts providing some balance and visible humanity. The display encouraged engagement. One either waited for one’s fellow-visitor to read before turning a board or break into conversation on a particular chart - which I did. There was after all, a lot to talk about.#paulgoodwin #katiemccurrach #alexanderboxhill #webdubois #africanamericanhistory #chartingblacklives #Houseofillustration #thesoulsofblackfolk #photography #archivephotography #graphiccharts #antiracism (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_7s8psgpzL/?igshid=kuj1hjkn67dh
