There are numerous high quality works featured in Boundless, an invitational group show that, according to the press release, “seeks to amplify Black voices.” Visitors will certainly wish to check out paintings by local stalwarts Bobby Bagley, Nae’Keisha Jones and Calvin Woodum, as well as one of the pieces Tafy LaPlanche included in her highly acclaimed Telfair Museums’ Boxed In/Break Out installation a few years back (spoiler alert: It’s bigger than I remembered).
But the real stars of the show are the sculptural heads of hair created by recent SCAD fibers grad Mia Crews, part of her series Dear, Dark & Lovely.
“It’s such a huge topic within blackness, not even just Black women,” noted CAC Gallery head Antonia Larkin. “The topic of hair, the topic of hair being presentable to the masses, has been a difficult conversation in the Black community, what’s acceptable, what’s not acceptable. I love seeing that artists are bringing it to their work.”
Crews isn’t the only one in the show looking at Black hair: In total, four of the eight artists featured are contending with the topic. But her take feels unique. Each piece is essentially a foam mannequin head covered in yarn, but while the tools she used to enact her vision look simple on paper, the ideas contained within are deeply complex and important.
“Dear, Little Black Girls Who Wear Barrettes,” for instance, recreates a hairstyle traditionally donned by young black girls, often against their will, according to both Larkin and the artist herself.
“I wore this hairstyle, and I hated this hairstyle,” Crews stated. “I went to a pretty mixed school, and you see the way other people’s mothers style their hair, and you kind of want that. But then you realize your mom styles your hair this way every morning.”
And then there’s “Dear, Black Women Keep Your Crown.”
“This is about the history of Black women’s hair,” Larkin explained of the piece. “Dark and Lovely is a relaxer company. The head looks like the inside of a body, endometrial tissue, cancerous tissue, because they have found in recent years that relaxers have caused reproductive issues for women.”
The hair falling off is the third-degree burns,” added the artist, referencing the patch of discolored hair clinging to the top of the sculpture. “Because relaxers are a chemical treatment, if you leave them on for too long it will burn your hair off, and it will burn your scalp.”
“It’s heavily advertised to black women,” Crews continued, a fact easily verified with a quick Google search. “It’s something that can ‘solve their problems’ of having ‘unmanageable hair’ or make their hair ‘silky smooth.’ It’s about pressure to conform, about how that leads to using relaxers, and how that leads to cancer.”
Important stuff from the young artist, a depth of conception that she more than backs up with the work.
The Savannah Cultural Arts Center will hold an artist talk for the exhibition at 6 p.m., on February 8, 201 Montgomery St.
Dripping Crown Chronicles by Zay Hutchins at The Sentient Bean, through March 7th
The Sentient Bean might be a coffee shop, but it’s also one hell of a place to see art. Zay Hutchins’ Dripping Crown Chronicles continues the Forsyth Park-adjacent cafe’s run of excellent exhibitions, bringing the artist back to where he originally debuted the first two iterations of his “Dripping” series.
“As heavy is the head who wears the crown, the dripping crown is a personal trademark that inspires me to create art that tell stories of the good, the bad, and the provocative of what a modern day neighborhood King or Queen goes through to obtain said crown,” Hutchins explained to me via Messenger. “Even if the crown isn’t present within the painting, there’s still the downward dripping effect or technique that I use within all of my paintings that gives you a clue that the crown is somewhere up above.”
The “up above” plays a major role in the collection of new works the painter and tattoo artist has chosen for this show: Winged black youths soar in “Fly or Fall,” a piece that, to me, looks to be at least partly inspired by the Miles Morales animated Spider-Man movies; while “Cloud Surfers” is, quite literally, young black men and women surfing through the clouds.
Those familiar with Hutchins’ two previous Sentient Bean shows will no doubt recognize his color palette, use of both spray paint and acrylic, and the characteristic style that he employs in his figure work, not to mention the drips. But each of those exhibitions featured personal heroes who had things to say that the artist felt needed to be amplified through his work.
With Dripping Crown Chronicles, Hutchins has dumped text altogether, focusing entirely on sending a visual message. Instead of presenting his audience with the things that have inspired him, the artist has decided to use his own experience and visual language to inspire others. One can’t help wonder if it might have something to do with him having spent the last year preparing for, and then contending with, his first child.
“As an artist, she has influenced me to be more introspective and has pushed me to chronicle the feelings and thoughts about the world that keep me up at night,” he explained.
Apparently Hutchins strategy for dealing with it all is to elevate the characters in his paintings above the fray, a message we could all use in this day and age.
