Gallery Response - Riya Bhajan

 




Antoinette Ellis-Williams’ exhibition BURN: Origins & Resistance was an extraordinary production, representing Black women and their sustained struggles. Dr. Ellis-Williams’ description of her exhibition was very striking, she states “In the beginning, black women loved and lived in communities as leaders, teachers, healers, innovators. judges, and mothers…They found ways to ease the pain and bring joy…In the beginning, black women created tools, crafts, art, music, dance, storytelling, and food to nourish the bodies, minds, and souls of those around them. Black women celebrated their beauty with vibrant colors, elaborate hairstyles, and unique cultural flair.”  Antoinette Ellis-Williams’ emphasizes “In the beginning” throughout her description, it’s like she is indicating that without the discrimination of the rest of the world, Black women were able to thrive in peace and abundance. “But as colonialization, capitalism, racism,

patriarchy and misogyny slithered into their garden their agency was tempered through physical, sexual, emotional, and spiritual violence, poverty, and oppression.” (Antoinette Ellis-Williams) 

The amount of pain and abuse Black women have to struggle with is beyond belief, Dr. Ellis-Williams perfectly embodies and captures this struggle in her work and reclaims it to embrace how strong Black women are. 

The first artwork that stood out to me is “Black Goddess with Golden Lips” (2020) This digital portrait shows a dark skin black woman almost disintegrating with only her eyes and lips covered in gold and hair peeking through. In the background, there is a fabric-like texture with a set of teeth on the left. The woman’s eyes are captivating because it almost looks like she is crying. In Dr. Ellis-Williams’ Artist talk she mentioned that she was very intentional in making the foreground of the Black Goddess’s mouth placed right in front of the teeth. Dr. Ellis-Williams states “Your voice may be silent but you have not lost your teeth.” Usually, the way of identifying victims from a fire tragedy is by their teeth since the teeth are the only thing that doesn’t burn out. To me, the meaning behind this artwork is that after death, an individual black women’s voice for equality and peace may be silent, but her impact and her value as a black woman are still left behind in this world. The impact and value are visually represented as teeth in this circumstance. As if she can never be silent.

The second artwork that was inspiring to me was “My American Stitches Flag” In this piece Dr. Ellis-Williams has made her own flag made out of different textile fabric with bold prints and patterns. The stitching that holds all the fabric together is evident, there are also safety pins throughout the flag. In the middle of the flag, there is a circle of cowrie shells. In Dr. Ellis-Williams Artist’s talk, she mentions that her Jamaican Immigrant grandmother was a seamstress and had all of these vibrant pattern scraps, so she made these scarps part of her flag. “I wanted to think about ‘What is the African American, the Black woman’s flag…This is MY American Stitches flag, with red white, and blue” It is as if Dr. Ellis-Williams is reclaiming and reinventing to have a flag that represents her, her identity, her family, and her struggles. Who she is as a black woman. Dr. Ellis-Williams mentioned that the cowrie shells represent money because that is what people trade with and the safety pins are what people fight with. She also mentioned that she is going to continue this artwork, add to it and make it a bigger scale.

The third artwork I would like to talk about is “Autumn’s Fire/Breonna’s Forest” (2020) this is a painting with vibrant colors made out of acrylic and cold wax on canvas. Dr. Ellis-Williams states that she created this painting after the death of Breonna Taylor. Breonna Taylor was a Black medical worker who was shot and killed by White Louisville police officers in March 2020 during a botched raid into her apartment, she was shot while she was sleeping. This story is one of many police brutality against a black person in America who was also completely unarmed. This painting reminds me of an abstract impressionism painting, abstract meaning nonrepresentational, and impressionism meaning the artistic style that seeks to capture a feeling or experience rather than to achieve accurate depiction. (Oxford) With impressionist art you let the movement and flow of the brush and paint showcase the overall imagery of the artwork. It encapsulates attitudes and emotions through nonrepresentational means. The sense of emotions I get is a free spirit and the act of boldness. In Dr. Ellis-Williams Artist’s talk, she mentioned that with the painting she didn’t want it to have a dreary look, “I wanted us to have this boldness in remembrance. I wanted us to think of the fire and think of the colors that are there, but always remember and say their names”  Dr. Ellis-Williams made this piece as commendable artwork to give a spot to the innocent black lives, black women lives that were tragically lost and Breonna Taylor is only one of those women.




Sources: Antoinette Ellis-Williams Artist Talk: https://www.antoinetteelliswilliams.com/post/njcu-burn-artist-talk-video



I created my own flag inspired by Dr. Ellis-Williams's "My American Stitches Flag" I wanted to showcase and represent what inspires me as a Caribbean artist. The struggle of being a Caribbean artist involves not having a lot of support from a Caribbean household and also not having enough representation, so I wanted to showcase some thriving and successful Caribbean artists to remind myself that it's possible. Each square (except for the second one on the second row) are all artist that inspires me and my style of work. The squares at the top row plus the 9th square are all Caribbean artists that I admire such as Ebony Patterson and Zak Ove. The second row has artwork from artists that inspire my aesthetic such as Van Gogh and Claude Monet. The square with an eye at the second row is a self-portrait painting I did last year.



3 Quotes from the readings: 


The Art of Self Invention 


  1. “The ubiquity of deception in popular culture is an invitation to consider the possibility that behind the surface of appearances there are other realities.” (page 2) 


This quote reminds me of the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” The appearance of people especially on social media is all fabricated. What they showcase is only the positive parts of their life.


  1. “Popular culture is not simply diversionary; it circulates ideas and brings complex questions to our attention.” (page 24)


It is beneficial that media, art, even social media gives a platform for issues to be addressed and for a worldwide of people to know.


Ways of Seeing


3. "Images were first made to conjure up the appearance of something that was absent" (Berger, 10)

In the circumstances of artworks, images can visually express emotions and tell a story based on the colors, compositions, or subject piece. To me, I believe the 'something' that is absent is the voice of the artist since in this case, it's only an image they can't express the meaning of the image or the story they want to tell using there voice they can only rely on what is happening visually.


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