Kinfolk, an art gallery of works by Danielle Scott, expresses a form of storytelling that touches upon ancestry. Danielle being both Black and Cuban explores the side of her African ancestry in her exhibit. She is an activist, and uses historical references as a means of gaining knowledge, educating, and expressing. In her artworks she uses found materials, historical images, and colors resembling precious metals. Some of her most impactful pieces tend to me more than 2 dimensional. She doesn’t just focus on storytelling but she uses different perspectives, the mother, daughter, sons, children, and etc. She tells these stories by embracing her ancestry and showing how powerful it is to be. The intentions are to make you feel something, and for it to be personal. It is a story that educates as well as moves you.
“Art is highly effective at translating events, facts, and ideologies into stories, images, and performances, making objective things into forms we can experience, feel, and, importantly remember.” Art of Activism (pg.25)
The first artwork that immediately caught my eyes was actually the beginning of the gallery and one of the first works to be completed. Queen of Angels, 2020, was an artwork Danielle Scott used that brought upon many emotions. Upon first glance you notice a few things almost instantly. It is created upon an ironing board, with a faucet. The hair is covered in beautiful sun flowers, has multiple images of people within her clothing, and headlines of many newspapers and other documents. She is using different types of mediums in her artworks to express her feelings.
Without knowing much about the piece, my initial thought was that the person in the image was obviously of grave importance to Danielle. The attention to detail of the physical image of the person was very important. In the image the flowers in her hair almost resemble a crown, and this gave me the impression that the woman was of a great importance, almost Queen like, in the eyes of Danielle. There were also a lot of gold pieces in the hair, which is typically associated with royalty. In the shirt you can see multiple faces, and I had assumed that they were all just people who shared the same importance as the woman in the image. After learning more about the artwork, you begin to understand why the ironing board was so important. It represented what a woman’s job was, and how that was the role of women. And Danielle shows how the ironing board is a metaphor for what Ms.Gladys Barker Grauer meant to her and everyone around her. She was mentored by her for 26 years. In her artworks she is showing you the oppression of the person(s) in the work itself. She is telling a story about her ancestry and using historic photos of real people and real lives to convey that story. The picture, while obviously being of personal importance to the artist, can also be speaking to someone else about a different story, one that relays the message to them.
The fascinating thing about Queen of Angels was how much she resembled my grandmother, and seeing her with her beautiful natural hair is so empowering. Embracing her identity, the big afro, which is something that was so frowned upon and seen as ugly was so inspiring. Queen of Angels wasn’t just about being black but also about being a woman and telling the story of what it is to be a woman. This piece in the gallery reminded me of when Bell Hooks talks about patriarchy and how we cannot fix things we do not understand.
“Clearly we cannot dismantle a system as long as we engage in collective denial about its impact on our lives.” Understanding Patriarchy, Bell Hooks.
This artwork is asking me what I know about the civil rights movement, what narratives are the ones I have been told, do you actually know why everything in this room is important and how do those issues and sacrifices made then still affect me now.
In the second art piece that most affected me, it touches upon a more familial aspect in the movement. King Constance, 2022 has a mixed medium assemblage with resin, and incorporates fabrics, gold material, and historical images of a family. In this image there are three siblings and two outline, almost shadow figures. The tallest, most likely eldest, sibling is wearing a crown next to the middle sibling, while the youngest is far off to the left covered in gold. When first looking at it I assumed that the family dynamic was explaining how the two siblings that were shadows of the siblings they had lost and the names that took up the spaces where their bodies should have been were being filled by the things they would have most desired, freedom. King Constance, who I assume is the oldest sibling, is wearing the crown because he is the bearer of all the siblings' issues, almost like oldest sibling syndrome. He most likely is seen as almost a parent, or king in the eyes of his siblings.
When trying to look at this artwork as an activist piece it shows the reality that not everyone had the privilege to make it to “freedom”. The likely achievers were the adolescent, and placing crowns and fabrics associated with royalty on their persons expresses how while at the time they were treated as being of importance, in the eyes of Danielle Scott and anyone who looks at these pieces you are royalty and they do matter. The sacrifices and the troubles they went through made us who we are, and it's important to see that it isn't just an issue of the past but an issue of now, every second.
One of the biggest things in Danielle Scott’s gallery as a whole is just expressing one’s culture. In the Art of Activism you hear them explain the importance of activism and culture.
“And finally, we’ve learned that while culture is something that we all share, we don’t all share the same culture. The building blocks, the symbols and stories that give art its content and form, differ among different people and places.”
Danielle Scott does an amazing job of showing us how her culture matters, and how her pieces are restoring honor to all those before her.
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