J. Robison
Hank Willis Thomas is a conceptual artist and photographer whose focus is identity, race, class, and commercialization. Thomas received a BFA in Photography and Africana Studies from NYU in 1998, his MFA in Photography, and an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2004. He is currently the Distinguished Artist in Residence at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts [1]. His exhibition works include Branded, Winter In America, Strange Fruit, and Evidence Of Things Not Seen [2].
I was first introduced to his work when I viewed the 30 Americans exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The piece that struck me deepest at the exhibit was Priceless #1, an image taken at the funeral of his cousin. His cousin was shot to death because he was present at the robbery of a friend, whom the murderer targeted because he was wearing a gold rope chain.
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| Hank Willis Thomas. Priceless #1 (2004) |
The depth of this piece is astonishing. Using MasterCard's 'Priceless' commercial concept as the basis for a commentary on inner city violence is a stroke of genius. With his recognition of commercialization and the effect it can have on race, Thomas pulls his viewers into a scenario unknown to most non-minorities with a hook that is instantly familiar to any television owner. Thomas skillfully associates the financial reality of our capitalist-based society with the social reality of our inner cities, where priorities do not often align with the sensibilities of museum patrons. Here, the streets are the marketplace and weapons are not only a commodity, but a way of life. Life frequently has little value and priorities, set by others, are distorted by despair - fleeting, forlorn, fearful.
Placing a price on human life is something most purveyors of the fine arts do not understand. In this light, Thomas shocks his viewers with an in-your-face display of pain and sorrow, ensuring that his viewers understand the senseless horror of a social construct where life is cheap and the community doesn't receive a budget.
By displaying raw emotion within a commercial context, Thomas forces viewers to confront their own privilege. Simultaneously, he puts inner-city dwellers on notice that their own actions in blindly attaching themselves to those trappings of wealth, without context to guide them, only shoves them down a slippery slope towards ruin.
Placing a price on human life is something most purveyors of the fine arts do not understand. In this light, Thomas shocks his viewers with an in-your-face display of pain and sorrow, ensuring that his viewers understand the senseless horror of a social construct where life is cheap and the community doesn't receive a budget.
By displaying raw emotion within a commercial context, Thomas forces viewers to confront their own privilege. Simultaneously, he puts inner-city dwellers on notice that their own actions in blindly attaching themselves to those trappings of wealth, without context to guide them, only shoves them down a slippery slope towards ruin.
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