Research Catalog
Lava Thomas : homecoming
- Title
- Lava Thomas : homecoming / curator, Bridget R. Cooks
- Author
- Thomas, Lava
- Publication
- Saratoga, CA : Sming Sming Books, [2022]
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Use in library | N6537.T56 A4 2022g | Off-site |
Holdings
Details
- Additional Authors
- Description
- 17 pages, 52 unnumbered pages : illustrations; 31 cm
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- Exhibition catalogs.
- Note
- Catalog of an exhibition held at Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery from April 29-July 24, 2022 and at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta from August 10-December 9, 2022
- "Through her skillful drawing techniques, multidisciplinary artist Lava Thomas creates portraits inspired by photographs of remarkable African American people to tackle issues of representation and memorialization. Across media, Thomas centers ideas that amplify visibility, healing, and empowerment in the face of erasure, trauma, and oppression. Lava Thomas: Homecoming will bring together, for the first time, thirteen drawings in Thomas' revelatory series Mugshot Portraits: Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (2018-); the multimedia installation Looking Back (2015-2021); and Decatur (2022), a new set of drawings that will debut at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. This will be the most comprehensive exhibition to date of the contemporary artist's drawing and installation works to address the relevance of African American history to our current moment. Thomas's Mugshot Portraits: Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott depicts women who were arrested for participating in the city's 1955-1956 boycott in Alabama. Her project takes photographic documents out of the criminal archive and translates them into life-size, handmade, loving homages. Thomas explains, "The drawings are rendered in pencil on paper to call attention to the fragility of this history, the ease with which it can be erased if it isn't adamantly preserved." Thomas's reinterpretations articulate the individual personhood of these women by attentively creating the details of their facial expressions and the textures of their hair, skin, and clothing. In Thomas's hands, the harsh light of the flash bulb used by police to capture the women's likenesses becomes an illumination of their irrepressible courage. Across a diversity of age, size, and class, these women planned and participated in the first major action of the modern civil rights movement. By demonstrating for social equality, they sacrificed their positions and risked their modicum of safety in the hope for achieving something more. Through her Mugshot Portraits, Thomas preserves and creates a new index for the revisualization of historical memory that focuses on women's labor as crucial, showing viewers the extraordinary in the ordinary by engaging us with the detailed beauty of conviction. Looking Back is a site-specific installation that will transform the gallery into a meditative space. Four large-scale drawings, based on photographs belonging to the artist's grandmother, will be installed on the walls of the gallery. They offer an opportunity for viewers to consider the relevance and beauty of our ancestral past on our lives today." -- Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts website
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (page 17)
- Call Number
- N6537.T56
- ISBN
- 9781953189042
- 1953189040
- OCLC
- 1335769100
- on1335769100
- SCSB-14474063
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries