Prospect 3 Exhibition Review
Herbert Singleton lived a turbulent life brimming with the lingering hardships of poverty and racism, his posthumous solo exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art titled Inside Out / Outside In is incredibly telling. This exhibition opened at the Ogden alongside a Jean-Michel Basquiat solo exhibition for the New Orleans Prospect 3 international contemporary arts biennial of 2014. The circumstance is perhaps bittersweet, as Herbert died of lung cancer on July 25, 2007 at the age of 62. An Algiers native, his work reports an unfortunately desperate set of existential circumstances. With little separation between his art and his life, he’s been noted as mentioning his art allowed him to confront the trials of his existence. On Thursday October 30th I spent time at the Ogden where I checked out the 8 pieces of work selected to represent the man. Heavy emotional themes dominate works that speak to repentance and transcendence.
Art was a lifelong pursuit for Herbert Singleton, born May 31, 1945. He was the oldest of 8 children that grew up in Algiers, the 15th ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child he regularly made snakes of Mississippi River mud eventually turning to wood for factors of permanence. He initially collected driftwood when the river was low, this was the beginning of a life’s work in wood, narrative, and representation. Found wood would be the material of choice for most of Herbert’s hand carved and painted creations which began to circulate around 1975. Brightly painted bas relief and sculpture were his most common forms of expression. His color choices seem very primary and pure, often times as if they came right out of a bottle. The paints also seem industrial and utilitarian as if they came from a hardware store as opposed to an arts supply store. I don’t think it’s out of line to assume that the cost of supplies was a decisive factor to these choices as this is the case with many southern self taught, African-American artists that carry the label Outsider. The Singleton exhibit occupies part of the Ogden’s 5th floor, an area reserved for the regular display of such Outsider and Folk artists.
Around the age of 10, his father walked out on the family. Choosing to drop out of school after the 7th grade (age 13), he began hanging out in the streets of Algiers on New Orleans west bank where he experimented with drugs and associated with pimps, prostitutes, and gangs. These decisions ultimately would lead to time served for drug related offenses. Fourteen years of his young life were spent in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. These existential topics are found at the heart of most of his work. Over the course of his prolific life, he has estimated the completion of more than 200 wood carvings. Where many of his contemporaries shied aways from the harrowing realities that have permeated much of the southern black experience, Singleton has left us with a detailed personal account.
A carpenter and construction worker by trade, his first serious artistic creations were porch totems dating to the early 1970’s. Ceremonial staffs and walking canes were desired and sought by the buggy drivers, pimps and dealers of the French Quarter. More ambitious representations began appearing in the 1980’s. The persistent effects of violence and his first hand accounts of vice and repentance position Singleton as a unique voice within southern contemporary arts practice. "His pieces were never placid scenes in the community," said art dealer Andy Antippas, who has sold Singleton's works since the early '80s. "There was always some reminder of what was going on in the community -- the demolishing of the social fabric he grew up with . . . He was simply reporting the facts, choosing those things as a political cartoonist might." (MacCash) “Due to their large scale, boldness, and frequently uncomfortable subject matter, Singleton’s sculptures were not widely collected at the outset of his career, however, by the 1990s, his works, especially the powerful carved doors, garnered widespread public acclaim.” (Perry)
In attempting to enter the gallery, the viewer is met before anything else by the shows title Inside Out / Outside In, and a tablet like wall mounting titled Come Out Of Her. Both seem to stress a duality of spirit. This colorful depiction of a ceremony of exorcism offers us a glimpse of what appears to be black magic. A healer or shaman figure envelopes a duplicitous woman, his serpent staff protects and oversees. In the background a skull floats in front of a green mug spilling a red liquid. This representation of the serpents staff might also offer some insight of the aforementioned protective staffs and canes he carved and sold throughout his community.
The flow of the gallery takes me immediately to a vinyl overview of his life and work. It stresses Singletons commitment to address the entrenched socioeconomic realities of the South. I land in front of a carved wooden plank titled Leander Perez, 1992, a horizontal bas relief carved of a wooden plank then painted. My first thoughts here are about the work as an arts object commodity. I think about my financial situation as a student momentarily laughing to myself that I can afford no art. I consider who would have previously owned such a piece and begin to focus on the dozen or so prison laborers that seem to be resting. I contemplate their status, being both subjective and objective in that they are state property. There are two white men amongst the prisoners, one of which is a cop who seems both passive and crazed wielding a club. It’s the look in his eye that gives this impression. I immediately recognize myself as the under represented race in this situation, not wanting to connect with the power mongers at its center, it happens and I consider my white privilege. At home with more research, I was able to learn that Leander Perez was a “staunchly segregationist district judge of Plaquemines Parish, who once transformed a nineteenth-century fort into a prison for civil rights demonstrators.” (Prospect 3. Notes For Now,132) In this depiction, he singles out a man for a beating.
My eye moves to the furthest wall of the gallery. A title painted upon the surface of the relief is curt and direct, there’s no room for misinterpretation: Dr. Kilikey Heroine Man. A man dressed fashionably in all black and holding a needle delivers a dose to his patient. To my left running the length of the galleries median divider are three cartoony totems. The first is titled Strawberry Woman, 1992. I’ll let urban dictionary handle this definition. “To people out there not hip to the fact, a strawberry is a girl sellin' pussy for crack to the Dopeman.” She stands crying above a grave clutching a kerchief. “A shame of being shame” is scrawled across the base of this 20” tall log, nearly 8” wide and 8” in depth. A second work of similar dimensions, a skeleton titled Boyfriend, 1992 leans awkwardly at her right. Another cryptic message scrawled at its feet: “If we did not do well with the life God give us thank”. I believe this odd little monster is standing in fire, most likely a reference to hell. The third fiend in this tryptic is Raspberry Man, 1992. Although urban dictionary offers no definition here, the statues pedestal again does: “Sexual Favors for Rock Raspberry Man” informs our interpretation. Although minimal, it’s interesting to see a layering of paint employed on these 3 carvings. In other gallery works this technique is absent, all paint application is flat, the bas relief handles any concern of depth.
Two additional works fill the remainder of the galleries prime real estate. Macabre again in theme, Heaven Help Us All and Angola complete the exhibition. Along with the previously mentioned Leander Perez, 1992, these three pieces do most of the work in the gallery space. Their internal narratives seem strongest, this is especially the case with Leander Perez, 1992 and the vertical, centrally located carved door Angola. Angola, functions as the anchor point or fulcrum of this exhibition. The found wooden door with it’s grid like coordination, serves as a very appropriate organizational tool. It compartmentalizes his visual narratives in a way not dissimilar to the thought bubbles of comic strips. Singleton’s door works first began appearing around 1988. In his life’s work there are many such examples where the use of the door is effectively employed to achieve similar anecdotal ends. In Angola, content is sandwiched between two large golden bits of text. The works title “Angola” is carved at the top, it speaks to the prison and the system where a quarter of his young life was spent restrained, it was once a plantation worked by African slaves. At the bottom, a plea of attrition “Lawdi Have Mercy”. Between the text there lies the sequential recount of several acts of depravity. We see a choking, as well as a man soliciting a prostitute in the first panel. These are followed by a man standing before a white judge, his gavel dropping against his bench. In the center, an armed prison guard on galloping horseback is flanked by two blue colored demon dogs. In the bottom half, a poem is inscribed splitting sorrowful visuals:
“”The farer the possum go up the tree the smaller his asshole look to me
If I get that possum on the ground I got dogs to hunt him down
Possum, Possum tryin to be free I gonna get you before you can run by me”
The word “Amen” is written here two times, once above a man sitting in an electric chair, again above a woman crying, a witness to the impending execution. Clownish convicts in jumpsuits overlook the scene of capitol punishment. A single row of cotton plants runs up the right margin of the entire surface.
To Angola’s left, a lighter representation titled Heaven Help Us All offers a funeral procession led by mourners and music. It’s a very solemn looking crew, but perhaps an exemplary depiction of a traditional jazz funeral with a saxophone, much movement, and the waving of a yellow handkerchief at the lead. Mausoleum bound, they morosely stroll amongst the raised cemeteries unique to his city of birth. In further home based research I encounter other such images of funeral procession in Singleton’s repertoire. Conceptually, these works seem less of a specific protest and more representative of quotidian humanism. Although still quite dour, they are a needed balance to the abject themes encountered so frequently in Singleton’s aesthetic purge.
"He was a major force in the world of self-taught art, not only in our community, but nationally," said William Fagaly, curator of African art at the New Orleans Museum of Art. "He wasn't imitating anyone else. He had his own voice, a very strong voice.” “When discussing Singleton's work, artist Willie Birch said labels such as "folk artist" don't apply. I would always tell him 'Forget the label self-trained, outsider or whatever,' " Birch said. "He was a great artist, at some point in his life his work would be recognized as great art." (MacCash) Through his inclusion amongst the greater Prospect 3 projects, the creative efforts of his life and all it’s hardships are uniquely validated.
In life, Singleton was the victim of gun violence at least twice. Upon release from prison, he was shot and nearly passed from the injuries. A separate occurrence left his sister and two of his friends dead at the hands of police responding to the shooting of another white officer. Their anger released in an early morning raid after which Singleton was detained, and beaten in an attempt to obtain a confession.
Herbert Singleton was represented by Barristers Gallery in New Orleans. We have both Gordon Bailey of Los Angeles and Roger H. Ogden to thank for contributions to the exhibition. His work is present in most substantial collections of Southern self taught and folk art. His works are held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA, as well the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD.
MacCash, Doug. Herbert Singleton, noted folk artist dies. Obituary.
http://blog.nola.com/dougmaccash/2007/08/herbert_singleton_noted_folk_a.html
Notes For Now. Prospect 3 Catalogue. 2014.
Regenia, Perry. KnowLa Encyclopedia of Louisiana. http://www.knowla.org/entry/1388/&view=summary
Urban Dictionary. Definition of word strawberry.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=strawberry
http://www.barristersgallery.com/singletonrv.html
http://redtreetimes.com/2013/04/30/herbert-singleton-glad-you-dead-you-rascal-you/
