Tia-Simone Gardner's exhibition entitled "Suspension" that is currently on view at The University of Kentucky is both poetic and pertinent in relation to our current social climate in the United States. Gardner has a B.A. from the University of Alabama, an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Practices from the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Gender and Women's Sexuality Studies from the University of Minnesota. Her works engage black feminism, human geography, and mysticism.
The exhibition consists of multiple large charcoal drawings on paper, a video, and two sets of video stills laid out in grids. In the center of the gallery there is an antique wooden chair set upon two large-scale charcoal drawings on paper. The charcoal drawings resemble large doilies, or two ornate circular rugs. The chair and drawings are enclosed within a ring of black salt. From the circle, from the side which the chair faces, emerges a line of salt that becomes a small rectangle that represents a floor plan. This art piece faces the video projection. The video piece is composed of subtitles for a woman's voice narrating Chapter 21 from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs on a black background.
The subject matter of black history and black feminism is so important for us to reflect upon, especially right now within the current political and cultural climate of the United States. In this country we have a reputation for "forgetting" things and only remembering them and celebrating them if it makes us look and feel good. Examples of this would be the fervency directed toward remembering the Alamo, Pearl Harbor, or having bombastic Independence Day celebrations. The past should obviously be remembered and learned from, "a logic that apparently vanishes like early morning fog on a hot day when applied to the historical moments we'd rather forget" (Wise 17-18). When it comes to our history of brutality, especially with regards to race, many people would rather that part of the past be hermetically sealed and stored away.
Unfortunately, it takes drastic public violence today to bring our attentions back to this history and the problems in our society that are systemic as well as sociological. With racially charged debates coming out of the presidential campaigns and the recent racial- and sexuality-related acts of violence that have been heavily covered by the media, these topics are back on the forefront.
An exhibition like Gardner's during such a tumultuous time brings perspective back into the situation. Hearing the voice of women who have been largely overlooked throughout history also makes this exhibition special, and it feels so personal. The very free feeling of the drawings and soft smears of charcoal, the heavily used and almost burnt-looking chair with no cushion, the expressions in the photographs, combined with the soft yet strong voice in the piece of video art make it a profoundly moving work. You listen to the woman's voice tell how she was essentially imprisoned in what basically amounted to a small box, while looking at the black salt expression of a floor plan where the chair seems to represent servitude, rest without comfort, sanctuary with irony, family, and mysticism all at once. You hear her say that she has not suffered the same way other slaves have suffered, since she was not being beaten during this time where she was locked away. She says it as though it was any better listening to her children play and being unable to move, having no voice, and still having no true freedom. You cannot hear her words and look at these drawings and stills and not be moved. The title of the chapter in Harriet Jacob's book that the video is referencing, is also named after an English poem by William Cowper that paints the "loophole of retreat" as an enjoyable peephole through which you can see and take pleasure in the crowds without the stifling feeling of being part of them. In the video, in the book, being able to see the outside world and her family without participating must have been an incredibly painful experience.
The exhibition poetically frames these accounts and real life experiences of black women. You can see that much thought, care, and research went into the creation of these pieces, but they still manage to have a light and effortless feel. Even though the charcoal is smeared, caked on, wiped away, dripping and swirling, the drawings seem to become a part of the wall, a part of their surroundings. The text in the piece called "Garrett I" has been softly smeared into perspective like a memory being recalled.
The notion of collage is also present here, in the reordering of existing video stills, with the big drawings made on multiple pieces of paper that are then placed together to create a full image, with the inclusion of medias like salt and the single chair, and the layering of different stories that work together to form a single expression. It feels like the memories and echoes of these women are calling out to us with a quiet strength, asking us to listen, finally listen. There is an economy of symbols here, where the viewer is guided and affected through the use of very few visual objects.
Tia-Simone Gardner is a talented and extremely intelligent individual with a unique artistic voice. The "Suspension" exhibition is on view until October 8th. Come to the Bolivar Art Gallery inside the School of Visual Art and Studies building and spend time reflecting on this show. Meditate on these women, their experiences, and these beautifully haunting and informative works of art. Hopefully after viewing these works you will see the connections to our brutal past and how negative race relations and gender inequality are still very much alive today.
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