Everyday, we witness people striving to get their point across, to be heard, when it comes to topics such as politics, equality, economics, and the like. They boast these opinions in giant newspaper headlines, or loud over the television speakers in attempts to get people to listen and understand. Effective as these types of media are, there is still one that I believe holds rank over them all. And that is the power of art, and its ability to render a message through simple aesthetics.
I found this out just recently, after viewing the Bank of America exhibition Mixing Metaphors, which had been held at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida.
It is no surprise that Bank of America has acquired an impressive collection of art over its years of existence, and I absolutely love when they send some of it out on tours for all to see! And this exhibition was especially dramatic and, therefore, all the more powerful. Constructed by photographer and historian, Deborah Willis, Mixing Metaphors speaks out and shows the world African American’s contributions to art and society as a whole. In the collection Willis has included over ninety works created by about thirty-six different artists, all with unique stories and meanings.
When viewing this collection, you have to simply focus on one piece at a time, otherwise there is this overwhelming cacophony of an entire race shouting its story through use of photographs, sculptures, prints, drawings, and mixed media. The exhibition explores all types of dimensions derived from African American culture. It encompasses all types of social, political, economical, and racial topics that we debate about every day. Only difference, is this says more through artistic media than words could ever explain.
The title of the exhibition, Mixing Metaphors, stands for the way art is used to tell a story, and evoke memories by use of visual aesthetics including photographs, sculptures, prints, paintings, drawings, and mixed media. Focusing on this point, the galleries are divided into “chapters”. As you move through the exhibition, it is as if you are turning the pages to a visual history book. The different sections are titled accordingly: Reflections and Likeness, Constructing Place, and, lastly, Rituals of Existence. Piece by piece, you get snippets of the culture, the struggle, the influences of society on these artists. You get taken back in time, and experience, first hand, each artists message to the world.
Starting off, you find yourself in Rituals and Existence. This first section is heavily focused on photographs and portraits. As you peruse them, be sure to visit one of James Van Der Zee’s portraits of an African American couple who are looking positively dapper in their coats, which look like they were made from raccoon fur, standing in front of a very shiny, very lavish, Roadster. This is personally one of my favorites. I just adore the expression on the woman’s face, and the utter extravagance the couple radiates. From there, you should make sure to view Carrie Mae Weems’s portrait of three young African American girls laying down in beautiful white gowns. They all seem to be gazing in a different direction, but the girl in the middle stares boldly into the camera.
Moving on to the following section, Constructing Place, you will notice that the entire theme is about how a place does not entirely mean you have to physically be somewhere, it doesn’t literally speak geographically rather it is mentally by use of memories. You will see a lot of family portraits, some worth viewing is two lithographs by Allan Edmunds and the all too notorious Ringgold Aunt Emmy. They are primarily domestic scenes meant to evoke certain memories of being at home. It is a comforting sense one feels when exploring this section of the exhibition. Perhaps because it makes memories of your own life well up inside of you.
Last, but not least, you move into the Rituals and Existence section, the grand finale. It is here that you will find more contemporary art. Willis tried to focus it more on the here and now African American artists such as Benny Andrews’s Rehearsal and Lorna Simpson’s Details. Now, it could just be me, but I feel that getting to see Details is a good reason to go to any exhibition. Not to mention the installation highlights the overall theme of the entire exhibition. It is a set of twenty one silkscreen photographs primarily of the hands of various African Americans. It is a piece which causes on to explore their own identity, as what could be more personal than a person’s hands? By looking at each frame, you imagine the owner of each set of hands, and thus look deep inside yourself and discover new, personal worlds beyond the collage.
After you have completed every chapter in the exhibition I ask you to please take a moment-take a step back. Mentally, I mean. Process everything you have just seen. Think of all of the different interpretations as one giant blob of information. Know what you get? And entire race’s history, personality, and characteristics rolled into one.
Simply stunning. Brilliant beyond measure.
What’s more beautiful is that you don’t have to be of that race to understand. In fact, it is an excellent way to get others in tune with a specific culture, and connect with them on a whole other level. It is mind blowing how hard we strive in this world to make our voices heard when, in reality, all we have to do is take a picture, make a painting, a sculpture, something that says nothing, and yet tells a better story than any broadcast ever could. Sometimes, it is hard to find the proper words in order to explain a certain photograph, painting, sculpture. Sometimes, you just have to be there, see it for yourself, and experience the powerful emotions it can evoke.
Mixing Metaphors is one such exhibition.
