Description:
Painted black sculpture comprising a cylindrical base and six protruding forms, which taper from thick orb-like shapes to soft points. There is light scoring on the surface of the sculpture that resembles a hairlike texture, and when lit from above, the tentacle like protrusions cast a hair-like image on the gallery floor.
Label Text:
Painter Alexandria Smith’s practice is largely centered on a lexicon of visual semiotics the artist developed to address the complexities of black identity. The Rooting Place is one of two works in the collection by Smith, both part of a larger body titled Monuments to an Effigy, an immersive installation that explores the troubling legacies of the historic Olde Town of Flushing Burial Ground, which was used as a cemetery for black and indigenous Americans in the late 19th century, and the Macedonia A.M.E. Church in Flushing. The Burial Ground was paved over to make space for a playground by the Parks Department in the 1930s, a troubling history Smith interrogates through the lens of black female subjectivity, memory, and myth.
The Rooting Place’s six protruding forms, which taper from thick orb-like shapes to soft points, represent one of Smith’s recurring motifs in her work: pigtails. The light scoring on the surface of the sculpture resembles a hairlike texture, and the shadows from the lights above cast an image of hair on the ground. (SSW)
Tags:
abstract; African American; conceptual art; devotion; diaspora; feminism; gender identity; girls; landscapes; mourning; race; social commentary; hairstyles; childhood; play; sculpture; roots; growth; spirituality; installations Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2019.39.2 |
