On Sunday I was super excited to see Soul of A Nation because I meant to see it over October break but couldn’t find the time. I became even more excited when I saw Elizabeth Catlett’s “Black Unity” sculpture. In my house, we have a coffee table book about Elizabeth Catlett in which this piece has a double page spread. I have always been drawn to this particular piece mostly because I just found it to be really, really cool. On one side there are two faces (the portrait). For some reason these faces have always seemed like women to me and if I am correct, I think its an important decision to relate the unity of black women with the symbol of black power which can be found on the other side. These faces clearly draw inspiration from traditional African masks and I like how she consciously connected the struggle of all black power/liberation movements around the world together in one piece. More generally, I find the color and smoothness of the piece to be really beautiful and I didn’t get full sense of this beauty until I saw it in person.

Also in this exhibit, I saw “Harlem” by Herb Randall. I had never heard of nor saw any works by Herb Randall before this Sunday. I found this photograph to be really beautiful and was drawn by the boy’s big smile. However, upon closer inspection this picture became slightly unsettling. In the background, slightly out of focus, there is a girl with a look of either terror or curiousness or possibly both. Her expression is most likely due to the hand squeezing her friend’s face. From the angle of the hand it appears as if the hand belongs to the photographer. This raises some interesting questions. Did Randall just squeeze a random kid’s face in order to get this photo? Did Randall know this child? Was he already squeezing his face and then decided this would be a good photo?

(catlett) (Randall)