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Fracture Drawings
2022

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The Fractures Series (2014 – present) includes renderings of BIPOC victims of police violence. The renderings are drawn with scars, gouges, and fractures as you would find in statues and stolen artifacts that depict BIPOC in museum collections. More than material content; statues carry the power of symbolism. Inspiring an empathy and consideration often not applied to human beings whose resemblance they bear.

Fractures: An ongoing series of drawings
2014 - Present

In 2014 I was thinking about Emmitt Till, and the lack of empathy for the violence and brutality often endured by BIPOC. I was considering this in juxtaposition to the care and consideration taken for stolen artifacts that depict BIPOC.

 

I began rendering images of iconic BIPOC with the same scars, gouges, and fractures as you find in the statues. Drawing parallels in an effort of inspiring the same empathy and consideration to be applied to the viewing of human beings as we culturally do to the objects that bear their resemblance.

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Fractures is an ongoing series. The most recent iteration includes victims of police brutality and violence.

Fractures Series: 2014 works

Fractures: Trophy Series
2012 - present

What is the Trophy Series about?

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There are certainly perceived and real social benefits for those fetishized by myths. However, do “Big Black Dick” narratives perpetuated by both Blacks and non-Blacks really speak to the humanity of Black individuals with penises? 

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The Trophy drawing series asks the viewer to consider the human beings the penises are attached to and not merely the exoticized temporal experience suggested by the mythology.

Trophy Series
2012 - present

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"The ancient Athenians depicted ‘the Other’ and put forward an argument, that the small penis

amongst other things serves to distinguish the Greek in comparison to ‘the Other’, whom are often displayed with absurd and/or large genitalia, mainly in the form of phalluses.

 

" Size and Matter - Greek Sculpture and Small Penises 2018 - Jens Schwarz-Nielsen

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Statue of the satyr Silenus at Athens Archaeological Museum
Farnese Hercules - Statue of Herakles at rest carrying fruit in his right hand. Roman copy of the Imperial era after a Greek original of the Early Hellenistic era; the left forearm is restored in plaster. c. 216 AD (4th century BC for original)

Some key points I wanted to consider: 

 

1) Historically, has the Trophy penis, the Mandingo male fantasy, or the Big Black Cock narrative in your mind served to humanize Black people with penises?

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2) The Greek playwright Aristophanes (446 to 386 BCE) best summed up the ideal traits of a man as: “a gleaming chest, bright skin, broad shoulders, tiny tongue, strong buttocks, and a little prick.”

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3)  Do these narratives truly express appreciation of the individual by way of complimenting a socially positive trait; or are they about power and who holds it?

A few references:

Broken Penises on Greek Stature

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1) The penises are drawn to match a series of Greek statues and are made to coincide with the angle or side that the penis (rested so to speak)

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2)  I was interested in a myth that the penis on Greek statues is missing because the Moor invasion of Greece led to statues built in their image and their natural endowments being destroyed to hide the fact that they were of men of color.

Exhibit at Jade Museum in San Jose, Costa Rica

 

1) Label info reads: Person wearing body adornments made of jade: ear spools, nose rings, necklaces, waistbands, and pendants, as well as tattoos

 

2) I was fascinated that the second image choose to remove the man's identity and leave only the jewels remaining as identifying markers of who he is.

Installation Images

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