Exhibit Dates:
1/17/2008 -
5/30/2008
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In Mixed Company
From January 17 – May 30, 2008, the Museum presents a new exhibit installation from natinally renowned artists and Charlotte native Willie Little. Titled In Mixed Company, the multimedia installation was funded by a 2006 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant for artists of unquestionable merit and considerable longevity.
When encountering In Mixed Company, visitors will explore the essence of the real and mythical fence – metaphorical barriers of prejudices typically found in the South. A floating forest of fourteen 6-foot tall jeweled and adorned walking sticks hypnotically hovering above the ground. Snatches of Jim Crow songs and sound effects will fill the gallery space with humor, surreal reality and emotional truth. Visitors will be invited to engage in the exhibit by opening lids of boxes filled with treasures meant to tickle the psyche and jumpstart the heart.
"In Mixed Company seeks to bridge the divides of race and class particularly in the south. Often where black and white farms of my childhood stood side by side, the prejudices and notions spoken on one side of the fence were vibrantly echoed on the other -- yet never together. This installation explores my rural NC childhood and urban adult relationship to the parable of the black curse. Evincing the poignancy of intra-racial "unspeakables," the parable reveals how the Black Man supposedly received "the curse" of his nappy hair. I contemplate these barriers as I transform the barriers of the fence into a forest of fourteen six-foot tall African-inspired, wood -carved walking sticks, wrapped, bejeweled, and adorned in cockleburs reminiscent of the celebratory defiance of African hair. Ironically, the walking sticks, in opposition to fences' and barriers' tendencies to erode the spirit, serve as icons of strength, resilience, and support for the renewal our collective humanity."
-- Willie Little, Artist |
