THE CONVERSATION

EXHIBITION: Russ Pittman Park I Bellaire, Texas I 2014

intaglio, found objects


From the public art exhibition titled: Color Up/Color Down. This body of work that examines a past, present, and future. “My intention is to create a conversation”. In the installation, nestled among the trees are images of young slave girls printed on Oak and Sycamore leaves. The leaves have been re-integrated from trees within the park. The bewildered young slave girls gaze at a collection of colorful stars that Johnson has created from bedazzled boxes and mirrors. Settled, and encased in resin, in the center of the “stars” are images printed on leaves, of a generation of young African Americans living a free life, a future that is difficult for the young slaves to envision. But are those kids in the stars really free? Are they really living in a “post racial” America? Are the kids in the stars being taught about the past of the enslaved girls on the leaves? Is our future trapped in a digital world? The environment and placement of this specific installation presents an opportunity for the viewer to engage in a conversation about a past, present, and future. The exhibition will run through May 1, 2014.
Russ Pittman Park is free and open to the public. For more information on the exhibit and park visit: http://municipaldirt.weebly.com/ .