Artist Lecture (02-16-10): Hank Willis Thomas

Todays lecture was my favorite so far this year. Mr. Hank Willis Thomas was extremely well-spoken and I found that his lecture was also the most informative of not only art but of culture as well. Thomas deals primarily with racial identities in the media, which he accomplishes in a variety of methods, from sculpture, to photography. He calls himself a "visual culture archeologist." Therefore, a lot of his work stems from appropriated imagery but he turns it on its head and reveals its ulterior identity. I saw a lot of my classmates and myself in his work. For example, Jenn White and his collaboration with his mother I See Myself In You and my personal series (from freshman year) Framework which was similar to his series involving photography's framing. It appeared that in most of his work like the framing series, Thomas would take an accepted concept and reverse it. Another example being the decisive moment v. his "indecisive moment," which is what he calls the exact moment you should not be taking the picture.

At one point, Thomas said, "You should always question the meaning in photographs...there is so much chance that takes place within the moment the photograph is taken." This really caught my attention because its so true and I find myself often taking photography for granted in the sense that often times, I do not fully appreciate what goes into image making as much as I do other artforms (ie painting). But Thomas' lecture was full of "ah-ha!" or "Oh, now I get it" moments. Another was when he compared the "bling bling" culture and its irony in the sense of how his ancestors were brought over in chains. However, it was his cousins death and from there his curiosity in how much material goods play a role in our lives. He said that logo's acts as our nation's hieroglyphs and how 'we live in a brand of branded consciousness' or, how we identify ourselves based on the products we buy. How interesting of a thought! I consider myself a Nikon girl and a Mac user with such genuine pride because I use such quality materials. In high school, I needed to wear Converse to identify with the social group I was a part of - I think that we are all somewhat aware of this, its just whether or not we really care.

It would be difficult to try to chose a favorite series of his because there were so many I really loved. However I think that my favorite pieces were I Am A Man which was the timeline of black culture and how we "stop defining ourselves are other peoples perceptions of ourselves and then become excited to just be alive." Also, like I think everyone in the audience, "Along the Way" was a moving, beautiful piece.

A few additional quotes I loved from his lecture:

"What is crime in a society that is so unfair?" - Speaking of racial hatred taking place in the 1940s when racial abuse was 'thought' to really have stopped

"I guess, I'm trying to critique the system from within." - What better way to do it? To stay on the outside and be uninformed?

From his video about his cousin, collaboration with another artist "Winter in America"

I Am A Man project

The "new brown"