Kinfolk Essay

 For as long as I can remember race and injustice has been a topic of discussion in my life, especially within my family. Growing up in a Dominican household and hearing stories about how members in my family were discriminated against made me wonder why we couldn’t just all get along no matter what skin color you were. I never understood the reason for treating someone poorly just because of how they look or speak, and this is something I kept with me throughout my journey of life. Seeing the “Kinfolk” exhibition by Danielle Scott really opened my eyes to how someone can be affected by their history and dedicate years of their life to exploring new ideas and finding themselves within their artwork. 

I attended Danielle’s artist talk and learned so much about her journey in creating this exhibition. She was originally a painter but quickly realized that she was not telling the times and making meaningful art when using paint as her medium. Her mentor told her that she needed to visit her homeland of Cuba in order to truly “find herself” and create meaningful art that she was passionate about making, but too scared to release. Danielle completely immersed herself in a world in which she directly felt the pain and suffering of her ancestors, which helped her create this heartfelt body of work. I had the opportunity to ask Danielle how important it is for an artist to get that deep with their work, especially today when information is readily available at your fingertips In the Art Of Activism by Steve Lambert and Steve Duncombe they explain “ The internet contains terabytes of knowledge that we can access with unprecedented ease.” She told me that it is a “Necessity” for her to go barefoot on a plantation picking cotton in order to feel the same emotion her ancestors felt. This emotion carried her work in an interesting direction, and she says she would have never been able to do it by just researching online. Danielle herself even said that her work would talk to her, and she even had to exclude a piece from the exhibition because the emotions the piece evoked were so intense, and coincidentally the piece ended up in flames after she finished pouring the resin. Danielle does not see this as a coincidence, instead she sees this as her ancestors coming back to tell her something and she takes things like this as signs that lead her in the right direction 

The first piece I chose was “Hatwell, Gray, Bernaby and Eugene”, a mixed medium assemblage covered with a resin. At first glance you can feel 8 pairs of eyes staring back at you and that is what first drew me towards this piece. The boys in the work are dressed in beautiful decorative fabrics that shine as you move around the piece. Under their feet is an orange fabric that reminds me of an earthy dirt texture and beside them are shiny gold pieces of fabric that look like moss has been growing over it. The background of the piece is a list of slave papers that slaves had to carry around in order to be identified. She uses this same background in almost all the other pieces and it's to pay homage to all these people who had their families and lives stripped from them. The message this work conveys about power, race and inequality is that those words have no boundaries and even small children can be affected by racism and inequality. Their faces tell it all and they do not look like happy children who are playing in a field. They look tired and overworked but one thing Is they all look hopeful. The truth is something that Danielle wants to convey in her work, and In the Art of Activism the authors say “The truth will set you free.” I believe this quote to be very important because that is the basis of what activist art is; It is just telling the truth(s) of a group of people and making them known to the world. This piece was especially moving and at times I could understand why Danielle says that her artwork speaks to her because this piece definitely spoke to me. 

The next piece I chose was, “MaDear Seamstress” and it is again a mixed medium assemblage with resin. I felt a very personal connection to this piece because I am a fashion designer myself and I have a lineage of people in my family, including my great grandmother who used to sew. The piece features beautiful, patterned fabric on the actual subject, and fabric imbedded in the background with the slave papers. The seamstress in this picture is holding a white knitted fabric that reminds me of something my great grandmother would sew. The meaning of this piece to me is to show a powerful black woman who is almost like the “Pillar” of the family in her truest form. Like the rest of the pieces, the subject in this one is staring directly at you almost as if she is asking you if you like her knitted fabric. One thing I kept thinking about when looking at this piece is the idea of a strong woman figure in the household. I also thought about this quote from the book “Will to change” by Bell hooks that reads” As their daughter I was taught that it was my role to be weak, to serve and to be free from the burden of thinking...” I found this quote very interesting because I grew up around all girls and those were the strong figures in my personal life. Although I agree that men should protect and provide, It is not fair to put woman in a box especially when they can be in positions of power. The subject in this work looks like she would be all for woman empowerment and against patriarchy.  

I would without a question consider this exhibition art activism because instead of it feeling like “ A day at the department of motor vehicles”, it evokes emotions that gets you to think about our history and how so much of the truth is suppressed. I truly felt emotional visiting this exhibition and getting to meet Danielle was an amazing experience and I appreciate the knowledge she shared with us that that. She understands how to make activist art interesting and knows how to fit her own story into the narrative. I am very honored to have witnessed this body of work and hope to see many more like it.