The foundation of the following work is an exploration of 1934 essay Characteristics of Negro Expression by Harlem Renaissance luminary Zora Neale Hurston. Having been introduced to the essay in 2010 during a residency at the Schomburg Center For Research in Black Culture in Harlem, it is a literary work that has primed my imagination for the past decade. In the essay Hurston’s anthropological chops shine as she deconstructs the architecture of Black creative expression via the visual arts, dance, language, and folklore. Hurston’s treatise on Black culture is a work of translation, in the essay she interprets for all people including Black folk. Zora’s unique background having studied with anthropologist Franz Boaz, a proponent of cultural relativism, solidified her desire to understand Black culture on its own terms and not to make judgments using the standards of Eurocentric culture. As an artist my intellectual path mirrors Zora’s, in using cultural anthropology concepts to decipher Blackness. My time spent studying under Black anthropologist Dr. Warren Perry exposed me to the practice of cultural relativism to chart an aesthetic path though the wilderness of my own artistic practice. Ultimately, as a Black artist whose arts education was on the Africa continent, my work has also led me to investigate ways in which Afro diasporic visual culture has mutated from classical African expressions. In Zora’s Characteristics of Negro Expression, like a master cartographer she maps loci of impulse within the genetic memory of African Diasporic people…capturing the inherent fluidity of Negro expression. Grappling with her observations I continue to realize how Zora codified voices present in my aesthetic vocabulary that were self-identified but unarticulated.

Conceptually, the work presented is a triptych representing three attributes in the essay: Angularity, Asymmetry and Dynamic Suggestion.

Message from Beyond (Angularity)  Cremo Delicato marble on Calcite base

Created during the pinnacle of the pandemic in New York and the death of loved ones the sculpture was inspired by the famous Nkisi power figures of the Bakongo people of central Africa. The work honors the dead and is a vessel for their spirits. The sculpture is activated by words embedded in the stone.

The Great Architect (Asymmetry) oil and mixed media on canvas 77x56in

In order for the cultural body to reach equilibrium, the Great Architect must create a binary vision of both light and dark.

Celebi (Dynamic Suggestion) Springstone on limestone base   32inx18inx11in

In an effort to explore hybridity via Afro-Asian cultural syncretism the sculpture is an Africanized interpretation of the mythical Pokémon, Celebi. Often found in forests, Celebi is known in legend as the “Voice of the Forest.” It is omnipresent able to travel through time and space, plant life flourishes wherever it appears. Celebi only reveals itself in areas and times of peace. It has been regarded that as long as Celebi are seen throughout the world, a prosperous and bright future is still in position.

Exerpts from essay Characteristics of Negro Expression:

ANGULARITY

After adornment the next most striking manifestation of the

Negro is Angularity. Everything that he touches becomes angular.

In all African sculpture and doctrine of any sort we find the

same thing.

Anyone watching Negro dancers will be struck by the same

phenomenon. Every posture is another angle. Pleasing, yes. But

an effect achieved by the very means which a European strives

to avoid.

The pictures on the walls are hung at deep angles. Furniture

is always set at an angle. I have instances of a piece of furniture

in the middle of a wall being set with one end nearer the

wall than the other to avoid the simple straight line.

ASYMMETRY

Asymmetry is a definite feature of Negro art. I have no samples

of true Negro painting unless we count the African shields, but

the sculpture and carvings are full of this beauty and lack of

symmetry. It is the lack of symmetry which makes Negro dancing so

difficult for white dancers to learn. The abrupt ‘and unexpected

changes. The frequent change of key and time are evidences of

this quality in music (Note the St. Louis Blues) .

The dancing of the justly famous Bo-Jangles and Snake Hips

are excellent examples.

The presence of rhythm and lack of symmetry are paradoxical,

but there they are. Both are present to a marked degree.

There is always rhythm, but it is the rhythm of segments. Each

unit has a rhythm of its own, but when the whole is assembled

it is lacking in symmetry. But easily workable to a Negro who is

accustomed to the break in going from one part to another, so

that he adjusts himself to the new tempo. Negro dancing is dynamic suggestion.

No matter how violent it may appear to the beholder, every posture gives the impression

that the dancer will do much more. For example, the

performer flexes one knee sharply, assumes a ferocious face mask,

thrusts the upper part of the body forward with clenched fists,

elbows taut as in hard running or grasping a thrusting blade.

That is all. But the spectator himself adds the picture of ferocious

assault, hears the drums and finds himself keeping time

with the music and tensing himself for the struggle.

He is participating in the performance himself—carrying out the suggestions of the performer.

The difference in the two arts is: the white dancer attempts

to express fully; the Negro is restrained, but succeeds in gripping

the beholder by forcing him to finish the action the performer

suggests. Since no art can ever express all the variations

conceivable, the Negro must be considered the greater artist, his

dancing is realistic suggestion, and that is about all a great artist

can do.