147.32 x 68.58 cm
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.
As 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...
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...
“Guards at the Taj”: The Bloody Brushstrokes of Beauty | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Photo: Singapore Repertory Theatre November 27, 2018 By Naeem Kapadia (885 words, four-minute read) First there’s its scale – with its magnificent marble dome, soaring pillars and lush surrounding gardens...
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Screening at 5pm at Little Roxie In connection to his exhibition, Evidence of Things Not Seen at KADIST , photo-conceptual artist, Hank Willis Thomas selected these films as a homage to innovative and influential creators in the medium of film whose work supports social justice as well as explores contemporary notions of identity, race, history and a national legacy of resistance...
This untitled painting by Tirdad Hasemi presents a space that can be thought of as both a prison cell and a house...
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KNOTS: An open letter to 艺族 STRANGER | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints The Pond Photography September 19, 2019 By Ke Weiliang (1,131 words, 6-minute read) Dear 艺族 STRANGER, After spending my Saturday afternoon with you at the Esplanade Theatre Studio, I struggled long and hard to make sense of the titular ‘knots’ that your inaugural play endeavoured to grapple with...