MY ANCESTORS CONQUERED A CONTINENT, PUSHING ACROSS DEATH-LADEN PLAINS, UNTIL THEY CAME TO AN OCEAN WHICH FACED AWAY FROM EUROPE INTO A DARKER PAST. ("Giovanni's Room" by James Baldwin, 1956)
Lyle Ashton Harris has filled the display vitrine of the Victory Theater with images and text printed on mirrored surfaces. Both street and viewer are reflected, and therefore become part of the art-a bold art which deals with being Black and gay, all in view of lives threatened by AIDS. The pictures range from huge portraits of the artist to more pop culture stereotypes. The texts reflect many voices, some from writers such as James Baldwin, Alice Walker, and Lorraine Hansberry, and others more from happenstance. "Our first and last love is self-love" was a message the artist found in a fortune cookie. One idea he stresses is returning to something or someone, not as we were but with new eyes, new vision.
"In this piece, more than aesthetically tight, Lyle Harris brings issues to the forefront that we all need to check." ("Arts Moment's Notice," Franklin Sirmans, ACE: July 23-August 6, 1993)
THESE MEN LOVED, ADMIRED AND WERE SOMETIMES IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER, THEY WERE CONFUSED BY THIS, WHO AT THE TIME AFTER ALL, EXCEPT JAMES BALDWIN, COULD TEACH THEM THAT LOVE IS THE REVOLUTIONARY EMOTION? (Alice Walker)
"He's talking with us, not at us, 'punks, dreds, baldheads, crackheads....,kids with no funds." (Sadat, Brand Nubian)("Arts Moment's Notice," Frankling Sirmans, ACE: July 23-August 6, 1993)
"'I was interested in taking these sensitive issues, racial and sexual identity, into a public space and letting the larger culture deal with it," [Harris] said." ("As a Street Goes, So Goes Style," Amy M. Spindler, The New York Times: September 19, 1993.)
Artists' Biography
Lyle Ashton Harris participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in 1992. His work has been shown at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Camera Work, San Francisco and many other museums and galleries in the United States and Europe.
History of the Site
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