The distinction we make about race must be some primal system that forgot to grow up. We’ve all heard ourselves at one time or another claim to be color blind and mean it and be both surprised and ashamed of our private thoughts about people who are not like us. In the last two years we’ve heard people say some of the most outrageous things about the President of the United States and his family and before taking a single proclaim “I am not a Racist”. I’ve wondered were our meanness comes from, what its purpose and when if ever will it end. It is painful to confront ourselves.
Progeny Two: Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas
October 8, 2010 – January 9, 2011 an Exhibit atThe Harvey B. Gantt Center For African American Arts + Culture Charlotte, NC 28202
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Dear Sir/Madam:
The exhibition that is being exhibited at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in Charlotte, NC is:
Progeny Two: Deborah Willis, Hank Willis Thomas; Fo Wilson & Dayo. The exhibition will close on January 23, 2011. Below is a description of the exhibition.
Progeny Two:
Deborah Willis, Hank Willis Thomas; Fo Wilson & Dayo
October 8, 2010 to January 23, 2011
Progeny Two presents the work of four artists; Deborah Willis, Hank Willis Thomas, Fo Wilson and Dayo Harewood, each are mother and son. This exhibition is the first collaborative effort undertaken by the four, which includes works they have created together as well as separately. Willis, Thomas, Wilson and Harewood use different art forms to create narratives about life. Their images are explicit, with visual, written and audible content. What emerges in this exhibition is a dialogue between the artists that is intimate and personal, yet universal in its representation of the mother-child relationship. As artists with individual practices, they conceptualize the image in different ways, yet all have taken to pronouncing the human experience as central to their visual explorations.
The word progeny refers to descendents, or children. It can also refer to a body of followers, disciples, or successors. In choosing to work in the same media, Willis, Thomas, Wilson and Harewood draw upon their mother-son relationships, which have been enriched by the influences of family. Their desire to document these familial bonds, by means of photography, video, furniture design, and installation, pays testimony to those who have come before. This exhibition is positioned at the intersection of their practices, where Willis and Wilson’s influences as mothers and artists are inextricably linked with the qualities that are apparent in the work of their sons. Conversely, Thomas and Harewood’s skillfully composed images have impressed themselves upon the visual compositions of their mothers. The result is a thoughtful medley that highlights the impact of family, history, and memory on the processes of artistic production.
Kalia Brooks
Exhibition Director, MoCADA
Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts
@Michele: Thanks for the correction and update.