Untitled
2019 - Textile (Textile)
147.32 x 68.58 cm
Alicia Henry
Out of simple materials, Alicia Henry creates enigmatic, somewhat troubled characters, which reveal her interest in the complexities and the contradictions surrounding familial relationships. The artist probes societal differences and how these variations affect individual and group responses to themes of beauty, the body, and broader issues of identity. Untitled explores these themes and addresses the processes through which women navigate such issues. Henry begins each sculpture by making preparatory drawings in her home studio. After completing her sketches, she begins working across an array of materials, including cotton, felt, leather, canvas, cotton, wool, linen, plastic to name a few. The choice of material will change according to which medium Henry deems best suited to the work at hand; her treatment of these materials lends the work its emotive quality. Untitled is a sculptural blend of textiles, acrylic, and paper that renders a highly tactile object. Drooped or empty sockets replace eyes, limbs feature voids, and faces are visibly sutured, absent, or lacking expression—alluding to physical pain and psychological trauma. At the same time, these figures generate deliberate presence moving the eye across the figure through formal exercises in color, line, and material. The figure is obscured by these layers of patterned and textured materials, creating a character that is expressive through more than their face alone. The artist once read that the state of being Black in is akin to being a Cold War spy—the ever-shifting loyalties; the constant heightened awareness of your surroundings; the palpable threat of violence from the enemy (which may or may not be your own state); the coded speech. Henry’s figure orients the viewer towards this sense of constant practiced deceptions, the masks worn for so long that the distinction between who one is and who one pretends to be ceases to exist.
Alicia Henry creates work that departs from Western ideas of portraiture, which denote a likeness or a construction of a subject. Instead, Henry’s figurative sculptures foreground the human figure in isolation, exploring metaphorical and formal connections between visibility and identity. Henry’s depictions of unidentifiable individuals are based on a range of composite references including but not limited by her own memories, African masks, paper-dolls, European clowning traditions, American minstrelsy and everyday life and events. Henry employs various techniques to make her representations including painting, collage, needlework, and leather tanning.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Toyin Ojih Odutola
2015As she traces the same shape again and again, Ojih Odutola’s lines become darker and deeper, sometimes pushed to the point where their blackness becomes luminous...
© » KADIST
Jianwei Wang
2007In Dilemma: Three Way Fork in the Road , Wang references Peking opera in a re-interpretation of traditional text...
© » ART & OBJECT
Berlusconi Mull Over Future of His Art Collection | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...
© » KADIST
Fabien Giraud & Raphael Siboni
2015-In which predicting its past it lives working and dies fighting- Fifth episode of The Unmanned , “La Mémoire de Masse” unfolds during the second Canuts revolts in Lyon in 1834...
© » KADIST
Adriana Martínez
2015Her 2015 work Orión is a black flag-like cloth with glow-in-the-dark symbols embroidered in the shape of the constellation...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Rainforest Fringe Festival 2018: Top 8 Picks | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles June 21, 2018 By Nur Athirah Abdullah The Rainforest Fringe Festival 2018 (RFF 2018) is less than a month away! Not to be mistaken for the Rainforest World Music Festival, one of the region’s best world music festivals, the Fringe is a cool combo of the very best of Sarawak’s music, art, craft, film, photography, and food...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
The working processes of artists: Chong Li-Chuan | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles May 11, 2020 Sonic artist and composer Chong Li-Chuan shares how he uses sound and music to complement and elevate performances, from theatre to site-specific works, dance and movement...
© » KADIST
Bady Dalloul
2017The Great Game is a series of works composed of a number of card combinations illustrated by the faces of key political figures shaping the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Is film programming underrated?; Ramayana x SEA | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar Jamie James for Hyperallergic October 10, 2019 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...
