RODNEY EWING

Part of the history of African American people is one of displacement and invention. With this installation Ewing uses these doors as portals to tell the story of loss, resistance, resilience and standing.

 

Each door is double sided.

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The first door is a Yoruba village with a schematic of a slave ship on the other side to represent what was and what was lost.

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The second door features H. Box Brown (a man who escaped slavery by shipping himself North) and the schematic of a Plantation. This represents lengths a person would go to find a home, and the system that repressed them.

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The third door displays the residents of Freedmen’s Village VA, and a list of Black towns that were established in the United States, but lost to history. This is the establishment of a place of our choosing, by our own will.

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The fourth and last door is an image of James Baldwin, writer, activist, and a one of his quotes regarding the struggle and establishment of identity. This door is the voice of the stand - not merely satisfying with existence, but with thriving.

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These doors have been on exhibition in San Francisco, CA at the Thatcher Gallery at University of San Francisco and at ARC Gallery