by Emma Lumeij '16 | Feb 6, 2013 | Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery |
Photo by Matthew Callinan What meaning can be found in the image of an appropriated image of an Absolut Vodka advertisement where the familiar image of the glass bottle shares the shape of an African slave ship? I went to the opening of Hank Willis Thomas’s Other People’s Property at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery out of curiosity – perhaps looking for answers to my questions. Is there even a relevant, meaningful connection? Is he just trying to be provocative? I was there for over an hour – an hour during which probably a hundred or so students, faculty and guests listened to Kalia Brooks (the curator) and Thomas introduce themselves and address the pieces in the exhibit – some students asked questions, others, like me, listened. Before I walked in, I grabbed a catalogue and read an essay written by Brooks addressing the exhibit and the larger body of Thomas’s work. Standing in front of the piece titled Scarred Chest I wondered why this man’s chest was emblazoned with the famous Nike swoosh I see on my soccer cleats and running shorts. I looked to Brooks for guidance: “Thomas interrogates the idea of the spectacle both by acknowledging the power of the image as it relates to the visualization (or lack thereof) of the black body and by using those images to subvert misleading narratives of race, class and gender that are embedded in history and contemporary culture.” In interrogating the spectacle as Brooks says it, gazing at an image can paradoxically entail both critique and participation—Thomas supposedly does the former. But I never put that much thought into...
