From Hara Museum, Tokyo
Special project Mickalene Thomas—Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two is now on view from Thursday, February 17 at the Hara Museum, Tokyo. The artist Mickalene Thomas came to Japan for this project and gave lectures in Sapporo and Fukuoka in association with Black History Month (note 1), an event organized by the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo. At the Hara Museum, she gave an artist talk organized by the museum on the day of the project opening.
Mickalene Thomas
【Outline of Artist Talk】
《Early Days/ Source of Creation》
While she was studying law in Portland, Oregon, Thomas encountered with photographic work by Carrie Mae Weems in Portland Art Museum, which inspired her to become an artist. She was particularly interested in the theme of her work which deals with complexities of gender, family and sexuality.
Thomas then went to Pratt Institute (B.F.A.) and Yale University School of Art (M.F.A.) to study painting and photography. In the beginning of her days in Yale, she was making works by putting archival images together with contemporary figures, such as Mona Lisa juxtaposed with a photo of herself and a pop icon of the time. While studying at Yale, Thomas was encouraged to seek for her unique style of artistic expression and to take photography to develop performative elements in her work. As an example, she showed a photo of herself dressed up as her alter ego and walking around the campus. Through many trials, she sought for her notion of beauty.
In painting, Thomas investigated works by Seurat, Manet and Gauguin and looked at their use of nude body and their notion of beauty in order to seek for her own idea of beauty. She was also inspired by African photographers who took photos of Africans, such as Malick Sidibe (note 2) and Seydu Keita, deepening her interest in depicting portrayal of black body and beauty.
Looking back at her works, Thomas remarked that her work has to some extent an ambience of the Blaxploitation (note 3) films of the 1970s. Although Blaxploitation has been criticized for presenting stereotypical images, she said that for her generation, Pam Grier in “Foxy Brown” for instance was a symbol of strong, powerful woman.
《About methods and media》
She started to use photography as a tool for creating paintings, making photo collages and developing them into paintings.
Today, she presents photographs, collages and paintings as separate entities.
When taking photography, she seeks to create images that were never seen before, and prepares props and backdrops even for taking portraits, and making a stage set for her photographs. This shows her interest not only in the composition of works but also in fabrics and patterns of cloths and in interior decor.
As for materials, she has since her undergraduate student years been influenced by Robert Rauschenberg in his use of non-traditional materials for painting, and began to incorporate nonconventional materials such as glitters into her work. There was an idea of bridging high and low elements such as painting and craftwork behind her work.
In regard to rhinestones, Thomas mentioned about her early interest in Seurat’s pointillism during her days at Yale and about Aboriginal paintings which she encountered during her artist in residence program in Australia, and how they are related with her use of rhinestones. In her work, different grades of rhinestones, from inexpensive acrylic rhinestone to high-end products like Swarovski and more affordable ones like Czech rhinestone, are used. These different grades of rhinestones present different ideas, playing with a perception of wealth, idea of who we are and how things are put on, the idea of dressing up, masking, idea of artifice, how things are perceived, what’s real and what is not real, etc. The other idea of masking, covering oneself as an element to presenting something else, is also implied in her frequent use of wood panels that were often used in America in the 50s and early 60s as an affordable way to renovate and refurbish houses.
《about Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two (2009) Collection of the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art》
Installation view at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
This large-format painting, whose composition was taken from the famous painting by Ingres, Odalisque (1814), shows a nude woman, who is Sandra, the artist’s own mother and her icon, her No. 1 muse. Thomas said taking photographs of her mother enabled them to close the gap that had grown between mother and daughter and forge a relationship. The stories of her past that Sandra tells to her daughter during the process of creating art has helped the artist understand herself as a black woman. Formerly a model, Sandra is a very expressive person who is able to present different looks for the artist like a chameleon, often presenting erotic element of woman while sitting for Thomas. Most of the best works, according to the artist, are those which use her mother as a model. “Mama Bush” in the title of work Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two refers to her mother, Sandra Bush, who is “one of a kind,” and it is “two” because there are two of them. Many of her works have little riddles in them.
※Note 1: Black History Month is a remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. Since 1976, it is celebrated annually in the United States of America and Canada in February and the United Kingdom in the month of October. In the U.S., numerous governmental as well as private institutions take the opportunity to organize seminars and events on ethnic diversity and its promotion through Black History Month.
※Note 2: Works by Malick Sidibe (b. 1935, currently lives in Republic of Mali) were featured in the exhibition, Joy of Life – Two Photographers from Africa [February 11 (Wed./ National Holiday) – April 11 (Sun.), 2004] at the Hara Museum of Contemproary Art which garnered much attention. The artist himself came to Japan for the exhibition together with the Nigerian photographer J.D.’Okhai Ojeikere and the guest curator of the exhibition André Magnin, holding a lecture at Institut franco-japonais de Tokyo was co-organized with the hara museum.
※Note 3: Blaxploitation is a genre of American film of the 1970s featuring African-American actors in lead roles and often having antiestablishment plots, frequently criticized for stereotypical characterization and glorification of violence. While African-American filmmakers were substantially involved in making early movies in this genre, their participation in subsequent productions was minimal. (Reference：“American Heritage Dictionary” See also “What is Blaxploitation? “by Robert Vaux）
The special project Mickalene Thomas–Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two is on view until Sunday, June 12 at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. (Also on view: Be Alive! ―Selections from the Hara Museum Collection)
Mickalene Thomas (artist website: http://mickalenethomas.com/)
*Photos of artist talk, installation views and artist are taken by Keizo Kioku (except images of works).
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Be Alive!—Selections from the Hara Museum Collection
Dates: January 14 (Fri.) – June 12 (Sun.), 2011
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