Country Family Home
2017 - Sculpture (Sculpture)
36.8 x 41.9 x 49.5 cm
Beverly Buchanan
Made between 1986 and 2015, Buchanan’s Shack Sculptures are a result of the artist’s close observation and extensive research of ‘shotgun’ houses, where one room is arranged in sequence one behind the other; the rural poor inhabited these houses. They were often constructed for rent near railways or manufacturing centers, but by the late twentieth century tended to be owner-occupied. By engaging with this architectural form, Buchanan considers the economic consequences of the abandonment of this form of housing as a result of the ubiquity of the motorcar that permitted people to move to the suburbs, where there was less pressure on space. In the South, where Buchanan lived and worked, superstitions were attached to this form of building that held that ghosts and spirits could pass straight through them, so doors were deliberately misaligned to deter them. Country Family Home is an excellent example from the Shack Sculptures series that explores the history of these ruined buildings, subjected to a battering by nature and life, and which are somehow kept alive to provide shelter for the disadvantaged. The patchwork nature of the shack suggests a hand-to-mouth existence but also the ingenuity of those who kept these buildings going against all odds. The title has ironic and cynical overtones, referring to country houses normally being considered as secondary residencies of the affluent. The artist’s emphasis on ruins foregrounds the central and pertinent theme of the necessity of survival.
Beverly Buchanan initially trained as a public health educator having studied medical technology and came to art later, training at the Art Students League under Norman Lewis and finding mentorship in Romare Bearden. Buchanan’s practice traverses site-specific interventions, photographs, drawings, painting and sculpture, and while her practice has often been considered as folk art, her work subverts the boundaries of categorization. Rather her practice boundlessly explores issues of race, gender and memory; dealing intimately with issues related to racial discrimination and hardship, slavery, the overlooked and the daily lives of the disadvantaged.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Carter Mull
2013Mull’s Worker’s Clock collage works bring together images from the artist’s studio photography practice, found photographs, and pages from a phone book, laying them over a psychedelic warp of color in the background...
© » KADIST
Conrad Ruiz
2009It may take a minute to recognize the background of New Fall Lineup – the colors are tweaked into a world of cartoon and candy, and it is covered by leaping energetic figures and flying squirrels...
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Illusions of home, and the hyper-capitalism behind technology, explored in show by Hong Kong artist who finally feels at home … in Finland | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Art + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more A still from Everything is a Projection (2023), a video in which Hong Kong-born, Finland-based artist Sheung Yiu explains what it felt like to rediscover childhood comic books and how he tried and failed to preserve their essence...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
New book sees ‘outsider artists’ as part of a creative spectrum rather than a world apart Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Books review New book sees ‘outsider artists’ as part of a creative spectrum rather than a world apart The publication also explores how artists on the periphery might interact with the art market Claudia Barbieri Childs 6 February 2024 Share Portuguese-born, UK-based artist Manuel Bonifacio’s Motorbike and Man (2012) Courtesy the Outside In Collection The book Outside In: Exploring the margins of art presents works by a group of mostly contemporary “outsider” artists and argues a case for critiquing them on merit—and the outsider art category in general—within the mainstream of the art canon...
© » SLASH PARIS
Matthieu Laurette — Une rétrospective dérivée (1993-2023) — MAC VAL Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Matthieu Laurette — Une rétrospective dérivée (1993-2023) — MAC VAL Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Matthieu Laurette — Une rétrospective dérivée (1993-2023) Exposition Techniques mixtes Matthieu Laurette, Self-Portrait, 2014/2023...
© » GAS
Christine Wilkinson - Fragments of Wild series – Gina Cross - Curator + Mentor Close Thin Icon Close Thin Icon Your cart Close Alternative Icon Now partnered with Art Money for interest free art collecting Now partnered with Art Money for interest free art collecting News Written by Gina Cross Previous / Next Following a successful showing at Photo London 2021, we are pleased to launch two new series of works by Christine Wilkinson...
© » HYPERALLERGIC
The Immense Charm of Miniatures Skip to content Possibly by Streeter & Co., bicycle brooch (mid-1890s), gold, enamel, diamond, and ruby, 1 5/8 x 2 1/2 x 3/8 inches (all photos Julie Smith Schneider/Hyperallergic) BOSTON — From ancient Egypt to the modern day, miniatures have charmed humans for millennia...
© » KADIST
Gabriel Pericas
2014“Weight & velocity (cat on router)” is a duo of two humorous photographs of a cat lying on a computer router...