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Title
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Behind the Trees
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Description
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The center image of this block provides the viewer with a window into the world of Haiti before the revolution. Framed by lucious trees, this view shows the rolling hills and lush landscape of the island, including an expansive plantation near the bottom of the frame. In the foreground stands a muscular plantation worker, squinting up at the viewer from beneath his straw hat. This image is one of many prints and paintings that were circulated in Europe in the 18th century depicting the colonization of the island of Hispaniola, one of many Caribbean islands whose people were enslaved by French and British colonizers for the mass production of sugarcane and molasses. As we peer into this scene, we are put into the shoes of the Europeans who confronted slavery and racism from thousands of miles away. Some endorsed this violent exploitation and commended the officers deemed brave enough to consort with savages, while others silently disapproved, and even fewer spoke out in opposition. Today, as we confront issues of privilege and race in different and more nuanced ways, we must stop and think: are we content to quietly oppose, or is it our duty to speak out against racism and violence? As artists, activists, and students we must push aside the lush leaves and trees and see racism and oppression for what it really is.
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Date Created
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2017
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PID
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grinnell:25504
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Title
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Invitation
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Description
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This block emerged from an invitation to participate in a campus-wide reflection on race, revolution, and artist’s place in our troubled social context. The ominous and powerful insect, the central image in this piece, is based on Alejo Carpentier's magical realist novel on the Haitian revolution, The Kingdom of this World. Is the insect colonialism? The revolution? It confronts the viewer with questions: Why don’t we know our own history, and why are we so afraid to teach it? In the same way that the insect confronts the viewer in this piece, we must confront our history and the ways in which it impacts our lives today. Although the insect hovers over us, threatening to destroy our memories, histories, and futures, we continue to coexist with it, allowing it to grow and respond to our changing conditions. The layering, movement, and sedimentation of the composition is meant to evoke the oceans, currents, and the troubling depths of race as “natural” yet at the same time constructed, still powerful and unsettling. It is a sea constantly troubled, whether we are aware or not. This block, and this installation as a whole, acts as an invitation to calmly evaluate ourselves in relation to our histories and education, without drowning in the waves.
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Date Created
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2017
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PID
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grinnell:25500
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Title
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Portrait
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Description
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This piece aims to honor the service of black and Haitian military men. When considering the Haitian Revolution we often tell the stories of men such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, one of too few symbols of black military power. This block places a black military leader at the center of attention, and also aims to connect his story with slavery in Haiti, America, and beyond. In this block, the image of the Haitian militia man appears beside an illustration of a cotton plant. Although slavery in Haiti was fueled by sugarcane, not cotton, an image of a cotton plant is placed here to remind the viewer that slavery is and shall remain a hallmark of American history, and issues of injustice in the military still occur today. When we consider the history of the transatlantic slave trade, we do not often think of its impact on how black people are treated in the military. Erased from history and celebration, black bodies were catalogued as equipment much like weapons and protective wear. While great progress has been made since the abolition of slavery and the integration of the military, we still have a long way to go in our quest for equal treatment of people of color as well as gay and transgender people in the military.
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Date Created
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2017
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PID
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grinnell:25490