america, take a knee 4 me

Satellite dishes are communication devices. I often use them as such a device in my artwork. A Jim Crow era American flag is draped over a satellite dish reflector plate covered with Ghanaian woven fabric known as ase-oke. The Rhody Brush, from a Rhode Island company is a remnant of Jim Crow era Black caricature relics. Rhode Island is not so well known for having played a major role in the slave trade. Many Rhode Islanders income was dependent upon the triangular slave trade. Some of the wealthiest and foremost slave traders in America lived in Rhode Island. They financed the slave trade with Rhode Island banks, built slave ships, manufactured iron works for chains, handcuffs and collars. These slavers owned plantations in the Caribbean producing sugar cane for the production of rum in Rhode Island and Massachusetts which was shipped to Europe on the third leg of the transatlantic trade.

Assemblage: satellite dish reflector plate, aṣọ òkè Ghanaian woven cotton fabric, rhody brush (1930s), screw, acrylic medium, wool flag, worn rubber knee pads
H 60”x W 28” x D 5”
(2019)