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| Julie Green, At Home With Family, 2021 |
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| Julie Green, T-bone Phone, 2020 |
On March 23 our class visited the “Thank God, I’m Home: First Meal” exhibition at NJCU. This exhibition was filled with pieces created by artist Julie Green. Green’s art consists of unique portraits of the first meals wrongfully convicted people consumed before they were sent off to prison. The artist spent a lot of time getting to interview these victims and decided to spread awareness of this crucial injustice through the medium of art. Green’s works truly give off bittersweet energy with or without knowing the stories behind them. Two pieces that caught my attention most were T-bone Phone, 2020 and At Home With Family, 2021.
In the first image At Home With Family, 2021 the viewer can see a family having dinner from a birds-ey point of view. This work takes inspiration from Julie Green’s mentor Roger Shimomura who used the Japanese bird-eye perspective and the exoneree this art is primarily focused on, Robert Hill. Robert Hill is a black male who was falsely accused of a crime and before Hill was taken he had a family dinner which is portrayed in this piece. It is unsettling to know that someone can be stripped of their ordinary life in a matter of seconds. I feel that because we take little moments such as eating dinner with family for granted makes this piece incredibly bittersweet.
In the second image T-bone Phone, 2020 reveals the meal of a t-bone steak through the screen of an iPhone. This work is inspired by an exoneree who did not have steak for twenty-seven years and when released was shocked by the new technology that surrounded them. What I admire most about this piece is how much personality and understanding of this exoneree were expressed. The aggressiveness and boldness of all the colors and patterns kind of confuse the eyes of the viewer. At first glance I did not realize I was looking at the phone I had to observe more into the piece which I find ironic since one of the main points of the piece is the cell phone, an invention the exoneree did not have any familiarity too. It is fascinating how much can change in twenty-seven years even more so if you are locked behind a prison cell. Twenty-seven years robbed from an innocent person’s life is a cruel yet sad truth about the exoneree which inspires this piece.
Julie Green also has another exhibition that shares with last meals of executed prisoners through illustrated plates. Green painted food on porcelain plates sharing the remaining memories through convicts' final meals. Green has created and shared about 600 stories through these plates in hope that the injustice and flaws within the system will be recognized. There is such great compassion and inspiration embedded in her art and you can see the artist has developed a connection to these convicts' stories. I believe that the “Thank God, I’m Home: First Meal” exhibition does a spectacular job at capturing the empathy Green has for these unfortunate exonerees and raising awareness. What makes all of her exhibitions extraordinary is the uniqueness of each piece that somewhat embodies images and encapsulated the energy of the people they are about just through the mere image of food.
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