Ann Johnson See Me

See Me: Sankofa Project, Artist Statement

BEING SEEN

This is about being seen.  Seeing the women in the shadows.  In my eyes the ironing board resembles a badge of honor.  A medal for the women in the shadows.  A medal of honor that so many Black women, and women of color have earned, as they had to take care of the families of others before they could take care of their own.  As a physical object the ironing board is a sacred symbol that represents the back breaking work women have endured simply for survival.  This installation examines family, community, and most importantly Black womanhood.

UNEARTHED.  REBIRTHED.  REIMAGINED.   SHOTGUNS: THE REMIX

Inspired by the presence of women in the community, I have reimagined John Biggers “Shotguns (1987)” with the women of the artist collective ROUX: Lovie Olivia, Delita Martin, Rabéa Ballin, and myself, Ann Johnson (If you don’t know who we are, find out).   The women of ROUX are peering at a community that is increasingly becoming gentrified, but is still the heartbeat of the black community in Houston.  The 3^rd Ward.  Each woman in this piece represents the layers and levels of womanhood.  Each portrait was created using the transfer printmaking process on vintage and aged metal ironing boards adorned with gold leaf throughout. The ironing boards in the composition act as an entrance to a shotgun house. “Dr. Biggers preached and preached and preached the meaning of this house, the fact that it was on one hand a very humble abode but at the same time it was a temple” says Alvia Wardlaw. [1]

Mimicking the original piece by Biggers, each woman is holding a replica house.  Lovie is unapologetically Lovie.  She defiantly holds a townhouse significant to the gentrification happening in the neighborhood that raised her. Delita unearths the women in Biggers paintings.  A modern version who cradles a replica row house from the community that educated her.  Rabéa swaying a church with the Fleur-de-lis honoring her Louisiana upbringing.  With her back turned, which is significant to her art practice, she also addresses the assumption of her identity.  She is a proud Latina.  In my portrait, I am cradling a house deeply rooted in my ancestry, and wearing a t-shirt honoring the legacy of African American women in art who have birthed my existence as an artist: Augusta Savage, Vicki Meek, Elizabeth Catlett, Alvia Wardlaw, and Edmonia Lewis.  It is of note that in the original piece the women are standing behind train tracks which is a significant metaphor for the separation of white and black neighborhoods.  The women of ROUX are fearlessly standing on, not behind the train tracks.  The African American women in Bigger’s Shotguns stand as the protectors and sustainers of their domestic temples. [2] The women of ROUX stand as protectors and key players in their own creative community.

Behind the women of ROUX, faintly seen through the houses is a young slave girl holding a white child.  Again I honor the woman in the shadows.  She lived a cruel life I cannot even conceive.  I use this image frequently in my work, to give this woman the honor she deserves, as her cruel life was a sacrifice for the freedoms I now have.   She has birthed the women of ROUX and sits behind them as a protector.

YOU CAN’T SEE HOW YOU SEE ME.

The women Bigger’s portrays in his work are often larger than life visually, as he reveals and praises their strength.  Ironically it is this portrayal that leads to stereotypes of the strong or angry black woman.  Bypassing her vulnerability.  Bypassing her true emotions.  Bypassing her need to be seen. Yes we love hard, but we hurt hard too.  Josie Pickens writes of this frustration saying “…what makes me angry, is when Black women’s pain—their sadness and hopelessness—is conveniently mislabeled as anger in an effort to dehumanize and dismiss our experiences and us. [3] Unfortunately this something we live with as black and brown women, and have to learn how to navigate this way of being seen for our survival, protection and sanity.

The final board without an image speaks volumes in text. Yes it is simply asking to “See Me”, but it is laced with stars and words about how we are at times seen in the eyes of others.  Negro, Octoroon, and Chattel are hard words to digest.  The cotton on the board places these words in context as they rest above the placard “1619 – made in the American South”.  A cotton boll from a Texas plantation finalizes this declaration.

At Pennsylvania State University, Biggers completed his doctoral dissertation in 1954 on black women after discovering “that women had produced a great deal of what we have given men credit for.”  “And that’s the reason why I place emphasis on them. I think they need to be known for what they’ve done. And we don’t know this in a macho world.” John Biggers [4] 

See us.

Notes:

1-John Biggers’ Art Celebrates African Symbolism, Culture
Owen McNally; Courant Staff Writer Hartford Courant, May 19, 1996

2- Shotgun Houses Gave Artist A Target
Sallie Gaines; Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1996

 3-Shattering the Myth of the “Mad” Black Woman
Josie Pickens; March 31, 2016

4-Framing John Biggers’ Shotguns (1987): African American Art and Identity
Kristin Schreiber Roberts