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Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other

Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY

March 23 - September 22, 2024

Selected Works Press Release Artists News Back

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Edifice and Mortar, 2018 Hand stamped bricks, human hair, glass, steel base 39 x 72 x 15 in. (99.1 x 182.9 x 38.1 cm) Clar-1034-C-OS Sonya Clark describes Edifice and Mortar as a wall, a flag, and a document that asks us to consider a fundamental question: who laid the foundations of the United States of America? Each brick is hand-stamped with a traditional maker’s mark and a word. Together the recto forms an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence. The lines of text are interspersed with mortar made from African American hair gathered from Richmond salons—the hair of people whose ancestors might have been legally enslaved and whose life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were cut out of Jefferson’s 1776 Declaration. The viscerally charged pointing is meant to represent “black people who are at once held under the weight of the system, but who are also holding this country together.” The brick stamps display the word Schiavo, which is the origin of the commonly used Italian greeting Ciao. Translated into English, the word Schiavo means SLAVE. The blue panel is intentionally placed at an angle to reflect the viewer, making each of us a part of the work. Edifice and Mortar extends Clark’s ongoing material and conceptual reworking of icons of America’s racially divided past and present.

Edifice and Mortar, 2018
Hand stamped bricks, human hair, glass, steel base
39 x 72 x 15 in. (99.1 x 182.9 x 38.1 cm)
Clar-1034-C-OS

Sonya Clark describes Edifice and Mortar as a wall, a flag, and a document that asks us to consider a fundamental question: who laid the foundations of the United States of America?

Each brick is hand-stamped with a traditional maker’s mark and a word. Together the recto forms an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence. The lines of text are interspersed with mortar made from African American hair gathered from Richmond salons—the hair of people whose ancestors might have been legally enslaved and whose life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were cut out of Jefferson’s 1776 Declaration. The viscerally charged pointing is meant to represent “black people who are at once held under the weight of the system, but who are also holding this country together.”

The brick stamps display the word Schiavo, which is the origin of the commonly used Italian greeting Ciao. Translated into English, the word Schiavo means SLAVE.

The blue panel is intentionally placed at an angle to reflect the viewer, making each of us a part of the work.

Edifice and Mortar extends Clark’s ongoing material and conceptual reworking of icons of America’s racially divided past and present.

Inquire
Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing, 2021 Archival pigment print on perforated piano paper Diptych, 11 1/4 x 15 in. (28.57 x 38.1 cm) each Variable edition of 20 Clar-1038-C   "Lift Every Voice and Sing" – often referred to as “the Black national anthem” in the United States – is a hymn written in 1900 as a poem by James Weldon Johnson, and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, for the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birthday.  Within this diptych, Clark uses repurposed, perforated piano paper to present the first verse of the lyrics which reads:     “Lift every voice and sing     Till earth and heaven ring     Ring with the harmonies of Liberty     Let our rejoicing rise     High as the listening skies     Let it resound loud as the rolling sea       Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us     Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us     Facing the rising sun of our new day begun     Let us march on till victory is won.”     The second panel repeats the verse using Sonya Clark’s font, invented by the artist using her own hair to shape each letter.  At the turn of the 20th century, Johnson's lyrics eloquently captured the solemn yet hopeful appeal for the liberty of Black Americans.  Clarks work, like much of her work, redresses history while pointing to the inequalities of the present day.

Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing, 2021
Archival pigment print on perforated piano paper
Diptych, 11 1/4 x 15 in. (28.57 x 38.1 cm) each
Variable edition of 20
Clar-1038-C

 

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" – often referred to as “the Black national anthem” in the United States – is a hymn written in 1900 as a poem by James Weldon Johnson, and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, for the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birthday.  Within this diptych, Clark uses repurposed, perforated piano paper to present the first verse of the lyrics which reads:


    “Lift every voice and sing
    Till earth and heaven ring
    Ring with the harmonies of Liberty
    Let our rejoicing rise
    High as the listening skies
    Let it resound loud as the rolling sea
 

    Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
    Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us
    Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
    Let us march on till victory is won.”  
 

The second panel repeats the verse using Sonya Clark’s font, invented by the artist using her own hair to shape each letter.  At the turn of the 20th century, Johnson's lyrics eloquently captured the solemn yet hopeful appeal for the liberty of Black Americans.  Clarks work, like much of her work, redresses history while pointing to the inequalities of the present day.

Inquire
Hair Craft Project, 2014 Series of 11 pigment prints on archival paper Paper size: 29 x 29 in. (73.7 x 73.7 cm) each Image size: 26 x 26 in. (66 x 66 cm) each Edition of 10 Clar-1048 - 1058-C

Hair Craft Project, 2014
Series of 11 pigment prints on archival paper
Paper size: 29 x 29 in. (73.7 x 73.7 cm) each
Image size: 26 x 26 in. (66 x 66 cm) each
Edition of 10
Clar-1048 - 1058-C

Inquire
Edifice and Mortar, 2018 Hand stamped bricks, human hair, glass, steel base 39 x 72 x 15 in. (99.1 x 182.9 x 38.1 cm) Clar-1034-C-OS Sonya Clark describes Edifice and Mortar as a wall, a flag, and a document that asks us to consider a fundamental question: who laid the foundations of the United States of America? Each brick is hand-stamped with a traditional maker’s mark and a word. Together the recto forms an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence. The lines of text are interspersed with mortar made from African American hair gathered from Richmond salons—the hair of people whose ancestors might have been legally enslaved and whose life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were cut out of Jefferson’s 1776 Declaration. The viscerally charged pointing is meant to represent “black people who are at once held under the weight of the system, but who are also holding this country together.” The brick stamps display the word Schiavo, which is the origin of the commonly used Italian greeting Ciao. Translated into English, the word Schiavo means SLAVE. The blue panel is intentionally placed at an angle to reflect the viewer, making each of us a part of the work. Edifice and Mortar extends Clark’s ongoing material and conceptual reworking of icons of America’s racially divided past and present.
Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing, 2021 Archival pigment print on perforated piano paper Diptych, 11 1/4 x 15 in. (28.57 x 38.1 cm) each Variable edition of 20 Clar-1038-C   "Lift Every Voice and Sing" – often referred to as “the Black national anthem” in the United States – is a hymn written in 1900 as a poem by James Weldon Johnson, and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, for the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birthday.  Within this diptych, Clark uses repurposed, perforated piano paper to present the first verse of the lyrics which reads:     “Lift every voice and sing     Till earth and heaven ring     Ring with the harmonies of Liberty     Let our rejoicing rise     High as the listening skies     Let it resound loud as the rolling sea       Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us     Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us     Facing the rising sun of our new day begun     Let us march on till victory is won.”     The second panel repeats the verse using Sonya Clark’s font, invented by the artist using her own hair to shape each letter.  At the turn of the 20th century, Johnson's lyrics eloquently captured the solemn yet hopeful appeal for the liberty of Black Americans.  Clarks work, like much of her work, redresses history while pointing to the inequalities of the present day.
Hair Craft Project, 2014 Series of 11 pigment prints on archival paper Paper size: 29 x 29 in. (73.7 x 73.7 cm) each Image size: 26 x 26 in. (66 x 66 cm) each Edition of 10 Clar-1048 - 1058-C
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