Amidst from April 12, 2021 to May 15, 2021 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Zainab Kazaure
The process of growth after trauma is not linear. That is a lesson that runs through my mind time and time again in my own attempt to blossom as an individual. Alyssa Imes’ Post-Traumatic Growth, with its fabric and poured cast iron medium represents perfectly the imperfection that is growth and how it exists in different ways for everyone.
The various colored and sized piles of fabric that lay in front of a wall covered in poured cast iron pieces work to help us think of our own bigger picture. Like growth, there are many different parts, not, “smooth or stable,” but instead with, “peaks and valleys,” as the artist says. We see these peaks and valleys and contrasting textures in the work. The biggest similarity between it and growth is that all the different pieces come together in the end to make a beautiful bigger picture.
Even though growth has many different parts, which can vary in appearance and nature, the ups and downs of it and our peaks and valleys are what makes us who we are. As we take the time to work through our trauma, as tedious as it can be, we are able to build ourselves up – putting the pieces of the story of who we are and who we hope to be together until we become as whole as Imes’ piece.
Alyssa Imes’ work is included in Amidst at The Stamp Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park
For more information on Amidst and related events, visit https://stamp.umd.edu/stamp_gallery.
Amidst from April 12, 2021 to May 15, 2021 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Helen Feng
Walking past the gallery, it is hard not to be captivated by the artwork in the Admist exhibition. Including piles of paper, castings that look like lips, and piles of fibers on the floor, this exhibit is far from conventional. The massive, colorful sculpture titled Transition/ Resurrection by Martin Gonzales is enthralling and takes you back to a time when you felt young and free.
With brightly colored flags and crisscrossing planks, the artist created a dome that feels like a contraption that a child would climb all over, and then safely play inside without any worries of growing older. Gonzales describes this work as a way of him trying to build a shelter in this inarguably imperfect world that we live in. His work reflects the way he has to become a parent to himself while protecting the child inside of himself.
Looking at this work excites the inner child in yourself, the one that feels like it left a long time ago, but really they just have not been out to play in a while. Gonzales uses red alphabet letters to create a playful sense as they are scattered all over the piece. After viewing this piece, it almost feels like you forgot colors could be this vibrant and that so many colors exist.
For more information on Amidst and related events, visit https://thestamp.umd.edu/stamp_gallery.
In Focus: Representations of Black Womanhood from February 8, 2021 to March 27, 2021 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Fiona Yang
Spoken word is defined by Parmar and Bain as a contemporary art form with elements of verse, music, and theater. The art form draws directly from elements of African-American culture: spirituals, blues, jazz, protest songs, and hip-hop culture. The musical and oral tradition of African-American culture goes back centuries. Darwin T. Turner asserts in his paper, African-American History and the Oral Tradition, that “[oral literature and oral history] are well-established as a part of Black culture.” Turner, a prominent scholar who spent his career fighting for the recognition of African-American literature, points out that early on, there would have been no alternative to the oral tradition. Slaves were not taught to read or write, and writing implements – paper, pen, and ink – were prohibitively expensive. Even if they could write, Turner reasons, it would have been unwise to record their thoughts about their histories and experiences in a form that could be found by their masters. Instead, African-American history in the time of slavery can be traced through folktales and folksongs, the most notable of which were spirituals. Spirituals “dealt with religious themes – faith, freedom, hope and salvation.” In addition, the spiritual often contained coded messages advising other slaves on how to escape bondage (Brown).
While spoken word was preceded by spirituals, it draws direct influence from later movements such as the the Civil Rights Movement. During the Civil Rights Movement, prominent authors, musicians, and performers – including but not limited to Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Claude McKay – created work centered around the African-American experience, drawing on the rich oral tradition of African-American history. It is within the Civil Rights Movement that the most relevant predecessor of the spoken word is found. During the 60s and 70s, organizations such as the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam diverged from other civil rights groups to form the Black Power Movement. The Black Power Movement was a revolutionary movement that believed in racial equality and economic empowerment through an explicitly militant lens. The Black Arts Movement, the “aesthetic and spiritual sister” of the Black Power Movement, was the artistic and creative arm of the movement (Parmar and Bain). It consisted of an “informal association of Black nationalist intellectuals and artists during the mid-1960s to mid-1970s,” and has been cited as the direct precedent and inspiration for spoken word poetry (Parmar and Bain).
Black Arts placed particular emphasis on poetry, purportedly because it was short enough to be recited at rallies while still inciting and moving a crowd. When the Black Arts Movement split from internal political schisms, several artists and poets made the transition to the mainstream. These poets include Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, and James Baldwin. Ironically, despite the movement itself being plagued with issues of sexism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism, several Black female poets “rose to lasting fame” (Black Past). These poets inspired a generation of rappers and slam poets that cite the movement explicitly as inspiration.
Members of the Black Arts Movement (1965 – 1975)
The Poetry Foundation notes that “spoken word poems frequently refer to issues of social justice, politics, race, and community.” Sadie Alao’s Black Girl Bitter indeed decries the marginalization of Black women in healthcare, particularly in the realm of mental illness.Alao takes care to debunk the stereotypes that lie at the heart of medical bias: that Black women are preternaturally strong, loud, and “crazy,” as she recites in her poem. These assumptions subconsciously perpetuate discriminate treatment at the systemic level: maternal maternity is higher for Black women, health disparities that disproportionately affect Black women receive less research and government funding, and Black women are underrepresented in key biomedical research datasets (Endofound). But those assumptions also create difficulties at the individual level, where it is assumed that Black women are able to shoulder more emotional labor than their white counterpoints, or than Black men. Alao, in Black Girl Bitter, emphasizes the vulnerability and exhaustion of Black women who labor under those stereotypes, inviting both sympathy and fury.
Illustration by Francesca Mahaney, Pratt Institute
Several parallels could be drawn when comparing Black Girl Bitter to the African-American oral tradition and the history of the spoken word. Previous movements – the Black Arts Movement, the Black Power Movement, the Civil Rights Movement – created art that examined the systemic impacts of racial discrimination. In contrast, it seems the next generation has turned introspective and personal. Art can be dedicated to individual-level analysis and emotional impacts. In addition, there is a parallel to be drawn between Alao advocating specifically for Black women’s mental health and the Black Arts Movement at large. As the Smithsonian puts it, “The experimental and often radical statements of the Black Arts Movement… expanded the boundaries of African American cultural expression, and thereby provided space for increasingly alternative political ideologies to be raised, discussed, and acknowledged.” The Black Arts Movement pushed the envelope enough to allow nuanced, sympathetic, and emotional discussion of Black women’s mental health in the mainstream; in turn, Alao is pushing the envelope with her own critical analysis of Black culture, provoking discussion and making space for other Black female artists to create their own art on the subject.
One final parallel can be drawn from Alao’s artist statement. In that statement, Alao turns to a higher power in her search for absolution from mental health. She writes, “I formed a relationship with God and He healed me.” In doing so, she has linked Black Girl Bitter to the rich African-American oral tradition of spirituality. Just as slaves and leaders in the Civil Rights movement alike drew on spirituality for strength, Alao now infuses her slam poetry with the same “faith, freedom, hope, and salvation.”
Black Girl Bitter is inextricably linked to the history of its chosen form, and is an even stronger piece with knowledge of the history behind it.
Brown, Angela Khristin. “Cultural Perspective on African American Culture.” International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies, vol. 1, October 2013. Accessed 6 Apr. 2021
Neal, Larry. “The Black Arts Movement.” The Drama Review: TDR, vol. 12, no. 4, 1968, pp. 28–39. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1144377. Accessed 6 Apr. 2021
Parmar, Priya, and Bryonn, Bain. “9. Spoken Word and Hip Hop: The Power of Urban Art and Culture.” Counterpoints, vol. 306, 2007, pp. 131–156. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42979462. Accessed 6 Apr. 2021.
Turner, Darwin T. “African-American History and the Oral Tradition.” Books at Iowa, vol. 53, 1990, pp. 7–12., doi:10.17077/0006-7474.1186.
In Focus: Representations of Black Womanhood from February 8, 2021 to March 27, 2021 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Kayla Conklin
The term “art” encompasses countless mediums, thousands of years of history, and millions of creators. What happens when two art media converge? Every week, the student docents at the UMD Stamp Gallery curate a playlist of music that represents the current exhibit. Each docent takes a different approach to their DJ duties, which produces a wide variety of musical interpretations of the visual arts.
This week, I produced a playlist for the current exhibit which is titled “In Focus: Representations of Black Womanhood.” Inspired by André Terrel Jackson’s hair pieces, my playlist is about Black womanhood and hair. I noticed that the Black woman’s relationship to her hair is a theme that courses through Jackson’s work, so I selected songs that approach this topic.
I include songs like Solange’s “Don’t Touch My Hair,” India.Arie’s “I am Not My Hair,” and Willow’s “Whip My Hair” to understand and illustrate the story of Black female empowerment and beauty. This playlist is designed to be listened to as you walk through the current exhibit. Take an extra moment of reflection as you look closely at Jackson’s hair pieces and listen to the playlist.
Next time you visit the gallery, be sure to pack a pair of headphones so you might view the exhibition while you listen to the Art Hour playlists. The playlists are posted on Facebook, the Stamp Gallery Blog, and will air on WMUC in the future. As you listen and look, consider how the music changes the meaning of the artwork. Does the exhibition make you think of any other songs? How would you describe the connection between music and visual art?
In a moment when empathy is so critical, making room for voices of Black women is so important. Hear and see many diverse stories as you consume art and media in order to get a more robust understanding of the history of art and culture.
In Focus: Representation of Black Womanhood from February 8, 2021 to March 27, 2021 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Mollie Goldman
Amidst the many colorful artworks visible when entering the gallery, Akea Brionne Brown’s large black-and-white photographs contrast with a stark intensity that entices viewers. Three of her photographs are distributed across the long gallery wall, each with its own uniquely enchanting effect that simultaneously complements the other two photographs.
This series of images is called An Archive of Our Own (2019). According to Brown’s website, this series serves to explore “black maternal relationships through the creation of an archive.” In one of the images, Brown depicts a daughter, mother, and grandmother standing in line and looking at the camera. The daughter has her arm bent and her hand gently holds the elbow and forearm of her mother. The mother then extends her arm in the same way to hold the forearm of her own mother. Perhaps there are numerous interpretations for their pose. To me, however, this pose, along with the title of the series, communicates the effort it takes to support and carry on a lineage. Each daughter supports her mother, and in turn supports her mother’s mother in a seemingly endless cycle. This shows that it takes work from every individual to carry and transmit the stories of their family’s history, as well as to maintain a relationship with them.
Referring back to the photographic medium for this series further contextualizes Brown’s potential message. Brown uses a “historic tin-type process” because it is “used to display the lack of depth within the medium to correctly expose for darker skin tones.” She uses this technique to simultaneously critique as well as explore the medium itself. The photographs reflect historical racial and social structures and how those affect black women specifically. Even the photographic technique itself portrays racism and reflects society’s judgement of people based on skin color.
While Brown employs this older photographic method, she also utilizes a relationship between a present-day daughter, mother, and grandmother to apply historical inequities to modern black lives and identities. The very style of these images communicates historical oppression in American history and shows how black women have struggled with generations of discrimination. The multigenerational maternal relationship depicted in Brown’s artwork shows the length and pain of this struggle, as well as the need for connection, support, and the transmission of wisdom between generations.
Representation of Black Womanhood from February8, 2021 to March 27, 2021 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Emily Pan
In the exhibit of Representation of Black Womanhood, there is a wide range of different mediums of art. There’s a series of books, spoken word with projected video, collodion prints, edited photographs, and in the center there are vibrantly colored headpieces. André Terrel Jackson’s series of wearable crochet headpieces are made of a variety of objects including beads, yarn, and paints.
The headpiece titled Walker catches the most attention with its vibrant magenta colorful and interesting shapes. While the crochet and the yarn is still familiar to audiences as a piece of art, interestingly, Jackson has attached washers and nuts dangling from the yarn. While washers and nuts are materials not often found in art and rather jarring, Jackson has managed to use the color palette and composition to integrate the pieces. Despite being so different, the different aspects of the headpiece work together to create a cohesive piece of work
The piece itself strongly reflects Jackson’s style of art and purpose. Jackson describes his process of art being like hip-hop, sampling from the world around him. Jackson explains that very material that is used acts like a voice in the choir in the art. Looking back at the Walker headpiece, it’s made of a total of sequin yarn, dye, silicone, washers, nuts, and spray paint. Jackson has managed to ensure that each aspect is individualist but still playing as part of the whole of a collaborative piece of art. The range of material also lends towards his discussion of identity.
Jackson uses his art to spark conversation on the voices and images of blackness, intersectionality of identity, contradictions. In Walker, Jackson uses the piece to focus on exploring the gender expression. Through colors, material, and form Jackson focuses on gender as a spectrum and its significance to identity. The diverse materials seem to reflect the wide range of the spectrum of gender expression. Furthermore, the color is specifically inspired by Alice Walker (author of “The Color Purple”) and her connection to the color purple. Jackson’s blend of materials and colors create humor and beauty for usually grave topics.
For more information on Representation of Black Womanhood and related events, visit https://thestamp.umd.edu/stamp_gallery
Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media from September 14, 2020 to December 12, 2020 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Mollie Goldman
Before even entering the gallery, viewers can see Kiara Machado’s painting “Centro” through the glass doors of the gallery as it brightens the entryway. Her piece is as rich in color as it is in meaning. One of the many beauties of this painting is the intricacy. It seems that each additional look at the painting exposes yet another significant detail.
Machado uses her art to bring aspects of her culture to light. During a recent artists panel orchestrated by the gallery on October 8, 2020, Machado spoke about how she enjoys intertwining her Southern Californian upbringing with her Central American roots. She discussed her use of bright colors and how they serve to not only captivate viewers, but also intensify her artwork.
Another motif in Machado’s paintings is botany and thick foliage. Yet again, this is meant to convey both beauty and meaning. For example, palm leaves are so common in her paintings due to the fact that they are abundant all over California, but were originally brought by Central American settlers and are not a native species. Like Machado, although Palm trees now grow in California, they derive from Central America.
Furthermore, another prevalent theme within her artworks are small dolls. Looking at “Centro,” viewers can see dozens of subtle dolls painted in the backdrop of the piece as well as resting in the hand, on the clothing, and around the head of the woman presented in this painting. These dolls depict those played with by many young children of Central American descent.
“Centro” is a wonderful painting to include at the front of the gallery as it entices viewers and sets the tone for so many other pieces within the exhibit. The beautiful symbolism and cultural meanings in this painting remind gallery visitors to look for the powerful messages interwoven into the many artworks of the Connected Diaspora exhibit.
Although the artists featured in this exhibit are of distinctly different ages and origins, and each possess unique artistic styles, they all have the common goal of sharing aspects of their culture in a beautiful and powerful way.
For more information on Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media and related events, visit https://thestamp.umd.edu/stamp_gallery
Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media from September 14, 2020 to December 12, 2020 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Emily Pan
Walking into the gallery, one would only usually expect to find traditional paintings hung in frames and canvases lining the walls in an orderly, structured way. However, the exhibit Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media presents a different reality.
Among a combination of various pieces of art of various mediums, the work of artist Johanna Toruño quite literally stands out brighter than the rest, and her work always has. Toruño is an artist known for her Unapologetic Street Series, a public art venture created by and for people of color and queer people of color. It features various graphics that are often bright and flowery while conveying a strong message and this theme is carried through in Toruño’s work in the gallery.
Toruño’s first work that stands out is the jarringly pink newspaper box titled The People’s Box. It’s a normal sized newspaper box that is painted a bright hot pink. In addition to the paint, tape is visible on the side of the door. Then on the front of the piece there are stickers resembling those that kids would use in the streets to tag public spaces and these stickers feature actual graphics of Toruño’s own street posters.
In various statements, Toruño explains the story behind this particular box. She had been searching for a newspaper box for a while and found this abandoned one out on the street. She brought it back and started working on it, however before she could finish, Toruño had to scramble to store the box elsewhere. After reaching out to social media Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded saying the box could be kept in her office on Capitol Hill or “The people’s house”. This particular word choice seems to be reflected in the title of the work- The People’s Box.
The newspaper box itself appears unfinished and strongly out of place for an art gallery, but it serves a purpose. The rush and scramble of efforts put into this work reflects the common struggles of immigrants to the US. People often come to live here and not knowing what is happening or what is going to happen, they simply have to adapt and move forward without knowing where they’re going. Through experiences of displacement, Toruño uses her works as a way to communicate with and for those of similar experiences.
For more information on Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media and related events, visit https://thestamp.umd.edu/stamp_gallery
Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media from September 14, 2020 to December 12, 2020 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Fiona Yang
The experiences of diaspora are varied and diverse, but one common factor can be historical trauma. Historical trauma, as defined by the US Health and Human Services department, is “multigenerational trauma experienced by a specific cultural, racial or ethnic group.” It is a term often applied to African Americans suffering the legacy of slavery and institutional racism; Jewish diaspora, suffering the effects of the Holocaust; and Native Americans, suffering from centuries of forced displacement. The initial source of trauma reverberates for generations – communities may continue to suffer from “unaddressed grief and behavioral health issues,” as well as a damaged cultural identity (HHS).
The Salvadoran Civil War (1979 – 1992) is one such example of historical trauma, with repercussions for Salvadorians and its diasporic communities. In the 1970s, El Salvador experienced a period of socioeconomic inequality and political instability. The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left wing groups, rose against the military junta government (the JRG) in 1979; conflict continued until the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in 1992. After the war, the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador registered over 20,000 reports of politically motivated, violent incidents during the war. While the majority of those reports were attributed to the JRG, investigations concluded that both the FMLN and the JRG utilized extrajudicial killings, child soldiers, and other atrocities during the war. In addition to the human rights violations, economic and political turmoil continued in the decades after peace accords were signed. Poor economic conditions and a decade of militarization created power vacuums in which gangs and cartels flourished.
Galileo Gonzalez’s piece Run (Napalm) deftly portrays the diasporic experience of historical trauma. While he himself did not live through the Salvadoran Civil War, his work “visually [interprets] oral stories from the Salvadoran Civil War” told by his grandmother (FA4). He further researches the weapons used during the war to flesh out his pieces. This piece, for instance, is titled Napalm, presumably after either his grandmother’s own experience or the general use of napalm firebombs during the Salvadoran war by government forces (NYT). The various forms of art in this piece – his grandmother’s storytelling, his own mixed media – exemplify the different ways each generation has processed and released this trauma. Run is also stylistically vague, loose – a reinterpretation of a story, rather than a photorealistic account of the war. The people are faceless figures, with cross-hatched shadows for faces. Buildings and fire are suggested through the use of orange, red, and pink smears; smoke is denoted by solid gray that fills up the entire background. There is a sizable amount of negative space in the foreground, evoking the sense of a fading memory.
Historical trauma has different impacts on different communities, especially diasporic communities. In Gonzalez’s case, as an American-born citizen, he – like many diaspora – does not experience the direct impacts of the civil war on Salvadoran society. However, his grandmother’s accounts of the war have stayed with her, and now she has passed them on to him. His interpretation of her accounts – as imaginative pieces, instead of accurate accounts – are an insightful portrayal of how diasporic communities perceive and confront historical trauma.
For more information on Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media and related events, visit https://thestamp.umd.edu/stamp_gallery
Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media from September 14, 2020 to December 12, 2020 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Kayla Conklin
Among the many striking artworks exhibited in “Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media,” the work of Jessy DeSantis certainly stands out. DeSantis’s featured work, titled Abuelita (60″ x 48″, Acrylic on canvas, 2019), is a part of a larger series titled “Human Connection via Nature: Two Family Portrait and Story Series.”
Abuelita is a large painting on canvas that prominently features an elderly woman in profile. She has medium-length blue-gray hair, a subtle smile, wrinkles around her eyes and neck, and a breast tattoo. The figure is positioned in the center of the composition, surrounded with hummingbirds, guardabarranco birds, and a cross-section of a pitaya fruit. Peculiarly, she wears a Star of David necklace around her neck. Like many of her other paintings, this image features very vibrant colors like turquoise, purple, and emerald green.
DeSantis has published several statements about this piece and the teeming symbolism within it. As the title of the series may suggest (“Human Connection via Nature: Two Family Portrait and Story Series”), nature is very present in this human-made painting. The birds are a symbol of migration and movement. The Pitaya, a fruit native to Central America, is a nod to DeSantis’s cultural roots. DeSantis uses symbolism in flora and fauna to tell a story about diasporic cultural migration.
DeSantis has also commented on the Star of David present in the image. The woman in the painting her grandmother, does not identify as a Jewish. However, she migrated from Managua to New York, entering a city with a robust Jewish community. Like the flora and fauna in the image, the Star of David nods to cultural diversity and transnational identity.
This image, Abuelita, challenges the notion that one must fit into one specific type of ethnic identity. Instead, we must consider identity as a grayscale where mixing and blending is beautiful. DeSantis’s use of vibrant colors, symbolic flora and fauna, and the seemingly out of place Star of David suggest that cultural identity is complicated and it can mean something different to everybody.
For more information on Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media and related events, visit https://thestamp.umd.edu/stamp_gallery
A Contemporary Art Dedicated Space at the University of Maryland
