红领巾瓜报

A on a new art exhibit honoring the Black community in Walden Woods,聽featured the work of 红领巾瓜报 Illustration faculty member Stephen Hamilton, BFA ’09 and Associate Director, Center for Art and Community Partnerships and Director, sparc! the ArtMobile聽Ekua Holmes, BFA ’77.

“On view through Oct. 18, the two-part exhibition features multimedia works on themes of identity, history and labor created by Black artists Sharon Chandler Correnty, If茅 Franklin, Stephen Hamilton, Whitney (Whit) Harris, Ekua Holmes, Perla Mabel,聽 McLeod, Kimberly Love Radcliffe and Anthony Peyton Young.

…More works are installed along an聽. Bird cages adorned with cowries, white flowers and fabric by visual artist and children鈥檚 book illustrator Ekua Holmes blend seamlessly with the greenery. Holmes鈥� art explores the caged bird poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote about in his poem 鈥淪ympathy鈥� and Maya Angelou鈥檚 book 鈥淚 Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,鈥� the title of which was borrowed from Dunbar.

Holmes wondered if the birds present in the woods now are ancestors of the birds who lived during the American Revolution when Freeman and others occupied the woods. If so, she said, 鈥渢hey were witnesses too.鈥� So, she wanted to invite those birds to come in and be a part of the story, she explained.

The doors to Holmes鈥� cages are open with birdseed and rice inside, so the animals can come and go. The cages are painted black because, Holmes shared, 鈥渢here鈥檚 a need to mourn, the pain of that community.

…Inside the Umbrella,聽Stephen Hamilton鈥檚 haunting 鈥淐aulborn鈥� hangs on a large wall. A blend of acrylic paints, natural dyes and pigments on burlap and hand-woven cotton, Hamilton depicts fish swirling around the submerged feet of a Black figure with a covered face sitting under a dark sky. The artist is trained in traditional West African art forms and wrote on his website that he treats 鈥渨eaving, dyeing and woodcarving as ritualized acts of reclamation.鈥�

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