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THE DEVIL FINDS WORK
The Devil Finds Work's title is taken from a group of essays by James Baldwin on Identity and Racism in the American movie industry. This body of work will be mixed media pieces documenting how the Black Body has had to navigate physical, social, and psychological spaces in America.
This body of work attempts to document how the Black Body has had to navigate physical, social, and psychological spaces in America. The series includes drawings and an installation that document Black communities’ history of survival techniques and its continued struggle for autonomy over its physical and spiritual being. With the escalating assaults on the Black community by individuals, law enforcement, and institutions, my community has been discussing how to operate in these violent times—not only for our physical well being, but also for our peace of mind.
OUR ABCs
The inaugural installation was a set of three life-sized children’s blocks called “Our ABCs.” Using one the earliest tools for learning and play, Ewing appropriated these structures as a way to communicate his own distress in not knowing what to tell the next generation of black children how to be safe, and to also illuminate the different lessons that Black children must learn versus their White counterparts. Each block features the face of a child slain by police or civilians, specifically Trayvon Martin, Khaleif Browder, and Jordan Edwards. To accompany their portraits, each block has a message from the “talk” printed on three sides. Leading up to each block is a scroll that repeats the words “colored,” “body,” and “last words.” This text is taken from Google image searches of the three young men. Ultimately, the installation not only serves as an epitaph for these individuals, but it also serves as a requiem for innocence lost."
GAME THEORY documents the different methods that the Black community has used to navigate physical, social, and psychological spaces in America. "Game Theory" represents this through a set of large dice. One die has the word "black" on all 6 sides, while the other die has mundane pursuits such as walking, sitting, standing, living. Adverbs that have been seen as cause for suspicion for the Black citizens. The dice also act as printmaking matrix because of the raised text. When rolled simultaneously, the dice create a pattern that reflects the vulnerability of the movements that the Black community has had to consider while moving under the specter of racism.
View the video here.
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