What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1215882
10 WHAT'S UP! MARCH 1-7, 2020 JOCELYN MURPHY NWA Democrat-Gazette H ank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal…" ends where it began, reasons Allison Glenn. Glenn is the associate curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville where the first comprehensive survey of artist Hank Willis Thomas' career is on display through April 20. "Ending the exhibition with this moment to sit and reflect and listen to people asking questions of one another provides, hopefully, an opportunity to think about all the tools that Hank's presenting us throughout the exhibition and allowing them to sink in," Glenn offers. She's speaking about Thomas' video piece "Question Bridge: Black Males" that ends the exhibition with an intimate moment of contemplation. The video sees black men of varying ages, occupations and geographical locations answering questions generated by the others. As with much of his work presented throughout the solo exhibition, the piece speaks to the complexity of the black experience, partially by combating the harmful dichotomy portrayed in the media of framing black men as only the criminal or the athlete. "He's shown us the power of advertising, the challenge of images. He's shown us how [physically] moving our body, shifting our perspective, shifts our understanding. He's shown us how shining a light on information provides new information," Glenn illustrates, enumerating themes presented throughout "All Things Being Equal." The exhibition spans two decades of Thomas' award-winning career and comprises more than 90 works, including photographs, sculptures, mixed media and his well-known "Branded" series. Thomas is a photo- based conceptual artist, so much of the work began as a photograph and was then rendered into the third dimension, Glenn reveals. The exhibition is organized into eight sections to demonstrate Thomas' inventive and expansive exploration of photography and its sociocultural ramifications. He challenges the viewer to consider, among other concepts, how words and pictures shape our perceptions; the consequences of gun violence in the U.S.; inherent racist and sexist codes embedded in contemporary advertising images; and how struggles for equality through history still impact and relate to us today. "Let's just say that things aren't so black and white — there's nuance to anything," Glenn posits. "And we live with the residuals of history. 'History is past, past is present,' that [is a] lenticular of Hank's. And it's true. What happened a hundred years ago is going to impact us now. It has. The policy that's being enacted now will impact us in the future. We're on this temporal plane that isn't just so linear, and there's often more to the conversation than what is at face value. "If you leave this space with a sense of discomfort, be confident in that. And understand that this exhibition isn't necessarily meant to wrap up in a neat bow and have a happy ending. "It just brings to light a lot of questions around race, class, gender in the United States, and connects to similar issues and the struggle for equality in apartheid South Africa, in Nazi Germany, connecting to the Civil Rights Movement here, to this present moment. There's just…we haven't figured it out," Glenn concludes, acknowledging the weight of the content. But, she points out, there is a breadth and a depth that exists within the work as well, hopefully offering the viewer the tools to open themselves to change. "The active viewer, the engaged viewer for this exhibition is going to be open to change; be open to seeing things differently; be open to challenge their position that they held to be true; be open to feel confident enough to ask questions; to be confident enough in being uncomfortable." The Challenge Of Change Exhibition engages viewers on tough subjects "Raise Up" is a bronze sculpture created by Hank Willlis Thomas, rendered from a photograph taken in apartheid-era South Africa. Thomas uses this process for several works on display in the exhibition — he isolates his chosen focal point in the photograph, then transforms the image into thee dimensions, reviving the meaning and urgency of the original action. (Courtesy Photo/Hank Willis Thomas and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York) BENTONVILLE FAQ 'Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal…' WHEN — On display through April 20 WHERE — Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville COST — $5; free for members, veterans and youth 18 and younger INFO — 418-5700, crystal bridges.org