Lullaby My little dark baby, My little earth-thing, My little love-one, What shall I sing For your lullaby? Stars, Stars, A necklace of stars Winding the night. My little black baby, My dark body's baby, What shall I sing For your lullaby? Moon, Moon, Great diamond moon, Kissing the night. Oh, little dark baby, Night black baby, Stars, stars Moon, Night stars, Moon, For your sleep-song lullaby! -Langston Hughes This poem was written before the Civil Rights Movement. It seems that we (African Americans) by now should be able to offer our children the moon and the stars, and all children should have the ability to go very far in life. Daily in my experience this is not the case, by not teaching our children the basic values we limit them. In an ideal society people talk calmly to one another, they share, they wait patiently and work through situations diplomatically. Respect in the young black community is still today gained by fighting. Many children never sit down to eat unless it is at the mall, kids are not taught to wait for gratification and pleasure in any form is stolen no matter the outcome. The black community who at one time prided themselves in being respected church goers have even abandoned this tradition. If they do attend, little is required of the younger church members, they need not stand during worship, dress respectfully, or learn the academic qualities of bliblical principal. Truthfully, many of these negative attributes our culture finds cute, funny, popular and therefore profitable. We can blame it on lack and make this an economic problem; however, truthfully it is slack. The difference between the two is lack, is not having resource, which has historically been a condition of our culture. On the other hand slack is the depletion of physical involvement. In this body of work my goal is to visually discuss these issues. So I came up with the dresses. The dresses are derived from the Easter dress, in the past it was one of the points in the year when kids got a new dress and a pair of shoes. I made them paper to discuss the fragility of childhood. I then decided to dye them natural indigo blue having attended an indigo workshop in Ossabawa Island. Research into the indigo color has led to the various cultural interpretations of blue. Beyond what I knew of the sadness, as depicted in music, especially its African roots as in a book titled, Indigo in Search of the Color that Seduced the World, by Catherine E. McKinley. Also research into the history of hair in African tribal communities and the stripping of that in slavery. I've looked into songs as sung by Nina Simone like Mood Indigo and Little Girl Blue with their sad and bitter tones. It is interesting that the children I encounter seem to have embraced their cultural differences by wearing braids. However, the length and multitude of the purchased hair bears little reality to their truth. In the work blue represents the history of slavery and Afrocentricity, feeling less than, especially in outward appearance. I am intrigued by the artistry, the intricate labor invested in a weave and the connection to the tradition of passing hand sewing skills from one generation to the next. I give honor to Anne Hamilton who so carefully depicts similar connections in her work. My goal was to print plaits on the dresses and am learning to use a method of lithography that will enable me to do this. I was also looking to create an environment for the dresses that would define the context of the work. In an attempt to produce a dress that looked more like brown skin for the fourth dress I use an old fiber favorite of mine, a brown Unryu that I enjoyed working with. The paper had more give because of its wrinkly nature. I have since returned to the white in an attempt to retain my ideology and plan to save the brown for a future project. My next decisions will be to decide upon the arrangement of the dresses using the hair prints as a separate body of work. November's post will share the work I am doing in printing the hair prints.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Laurie DarbyThis blog was created to share academic dialogue. My painting studio is based in Savannah, Georgia. Archives
October 2017
Categories |