Search results | Digital Grinnell

Title: The Greatest Lie
Description: This block was created around the theme of agriculture, an industry inextricably linked to slavery in both the Caribbean and the United States. To echo themes of agriculture, the artist included images of the cotton plant, as well as organic shapes which resemble flowers, seeds, and other found natural objects. Corn kernels, buttons, and leaves unite the realms of the home and the outdoors, as was often the case on a working plantation. The center photograph depicts slaves on a cotton plantation engaging in agricultural work, however the workers are not in motion but are posted in a triangular composition facing the photographer. The second photograph is also from a plantation, yet the subjects are household workers as opposed to field hands. These images both show life on the plantation, but only to an extent; they are purposefully arranged and therefore tell a very different story than a candid photograph might tell. These juxtaposed images are symbolic representations of the censorship applied to stories of slavery in American culture and education.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25488

Title: The Lewelling House
Description: The goal of this block is to awaken in the viewer the historical ache that is the legacy of slavery in Iowa. Superimposed over an image of Iowa is a road map of the Underground Railroad, with squares and circles placed along the routes to indicate safety for runaway slaves. In the upper right hand corner of the state the artist has placed an image of the Lewelling house of Henry County, Iowa, a meeting place for abolitionist activists and one of the stops on the Underground Railroad. The stones and flowers which surround Iowa, vibrant and glimmering, allude to the power of preservation. With preservation in mind, we must ask ourselves: How can artists and activists revisit the historical bondage of our ancestors while attempting to move onwards to freedom? J.B. Grinnell founded Grinnell with abolition as one of his key tenets. As we peer into the history of Iowa we confront the question of whether Grinnell College continues to protect the freedom of the individual, or whether we have fallen into neoliberal agendas that serve our oppressors. The evocation of discomfort through the topic of slavery serves as a reminder of the necessity to reimagine the realities of imperialism within and without the U.S.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25482

Title: The Man, The Machine
Description: This block depicts the transformation of the cotton and slave industries after the invention of the cotton gin. It aims to capture small sober reminders that enslaved peoples were commodities in the eyes of the United States, their only intended purpose to advance capital and power within the nation. When considering how to visualize freedom we must also consider how to re-imagine profit. Representing the intersection between bodies and profit, this block asks observers a simple question: Is the slave nothing more than an outdated cotton gin?
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25491

Title: The Storm
Description: The center image of this block, placed on the very bottom of the mold so as to appear farthest from the viewer, depicts the capital city of Port-au-Prince after the magnitude 3.1 hurricane which devastated the island in 2010. In this piece, the city is divided by a trail of nails; the buildings on the left side of the nails had received government funding for repair and the buildings on the right did not. The national poverty that necessitated this divide is one of the many ailments that plague formerly colonized nations; either you submit to imperial rule, or suffer economic consequences so often brushed aside as “third world problems.” In popular images of Port-au-Prince the right side of this picture is often cut out, eliminating the catastrophe from contemporary memory and thereby erasing the physical and emotional trauma caused by the disaster. The left side of this block depicts an ideal Haiti. A land warmed and nurtured by bright sunshine, this Haiti is known for its brightly colored houses and shell-speckled beaches, represented here with colorful sequins, marbles, and sea glass. The set of keys, paired with reflective shapes evocative of windows, call to mind a welcoming community where every family has a home. The right side of the block, however, represents the true Haiti. Economic class seems fixed enough to be nailed down. The black and amber stones represent Haiti’s crippling dependance on oil and external revenue, and the true Haiti is seen here still entangled in the net of poverty and colonialism. While this Haiti may seem grim, it is comprised of tools which can be used to build a brighter future. Buttons, screws, nails, and netting may look like detritus to some, but can transform into implements with which to achieve a more idyllic Haiti.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25514

Title: The World
Description: This piece represents an abstract approach to visualizing freedom. The only recognizable forms in this piece are two cotton plants, surrounded by abstract organic forms reminiscent of plant life. At the center of this piece the designs converge to create a shape evocative of a skull or head; yet each viewer might have a different reaction to the organization of forms and shapes. What do you see?
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25501

Title: Veneer
Description: At the center of this block is a photograph of Haitian slaves harvesting sugar cane before the revolution. Look closely at the image and focus on the people’s faces. How is this photograph different from other images of plantation slavery? Look closer and you may realize that the photograph is placed on top of another image, covering everything but the outer edges. The pictures we see and the stories we tell may not reveal the entire truth, and some narratives of the past mask another’s reality. Perhaps history should not be viewed as a timeline, with one image placed next to another, but should look more like an overused scrapbook; you must peel one image away to reveal another.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25497

Title: Women of the Revolution
Description: The story of the Haitian Revolution is steered by powerful characters such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, Henri Christophe, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, military commanders and monarchs who facilitated the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution. However, these men were not the only people involved in the dramatic uprising. Haitian women, too, played a large role in the rebellion, and this block honors the female freedom fighters who often go unnoticed in modern tellings of the story. In the lower center of the block the artist has placed a Haitian ten gourd banknote, featuring sergeant and lieutenant Sanité Bélair who fought bravely under the command of Toussaint LOuverture. To her left is a depiction of Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére, a Haitian soldier who fought in male uniform and is said to have greatly boosted the spirits of her male counterparts with her invigorating bravery. On the right hand side of the block we see an image of Cécile Fatiman, a mambo (Vodou priestess) said to have participated in the Vodou ritual at Bwa Kayiman, a ceremony during which the first slave insurrection was planned. Although these women, and others like them, have not made it into many history books, this block honors the sacrifices they made for the freedom of their people and country.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25518