The Absence Series

 

This is a painting from the absence series. Absence is an important issue in all black communities throughout the diaspora. Members of the black community are absent due to health issues, incarceration, untimely death, absentee parentage, all the social issues that affect the black community disproportionately.

 

All the people in silhouette represent the abscent members of our communities. In this series of works I wanted to see what it would look like if I put all those ascent community members literally back in the picture. I wanted to show where they are missing where they might be sitting or standing if they had had the chance to live their life in full. The   figures in silhouette are in strong bold colors. The  intensity of their color is a visual representation of the intensity with which we miss them some of the figures are almost neon bright. Even President Obama said that the absence of his father has shaped him more than the presence of other family members. 

 

Central to the meaning of these works are the black and white holes in the images. These contain parts of symbols, symbols of absence. There is the fragment of a question mark the end of an yet unanswered question, the symbol for absent knowledge. The absent members of our community can leave us with a lack of knowledge about ourselves. There is the fragment of a symbolic piece of luggage. Luggage is often lost it goes missing along with all the things we packed personal things that identify us go missing as well. People that are missing in our lives are often also our baggage emotional and financial but also identify us as who we really are. There is the fragment of an umbrella another thing we are prone to loose easily, an umbrella is a mobile shelter from the elements. People who are absent can leave us exposed to the elements, they are often our shelter.

The paintings are set in a generic green park an noncommercial landscape which could be in Europe or America. This is because I wanted to isolate this one issue of absence and not let other issues of commerce and class get involved ( although these are of course important factors in the black and indeed any community) With meditative and calm colors that a green landscape can offer I want to approach a difficult topic and allow the viewer to stay in control as too how much or how little they will confront this issue with relation to their own possibly painful experience. It is possible to let this picture unfold over an extended period of time in this way I want to create meaningful healing art which people can open up to gradually rather than a piece that is more sensational and shocking which simply pushes the viewer to shut down their engagement or retaliate.