MARCH 2018 | SARASOTA SCENE 89
on the town
How great an artist and visionary is he?
I really like Hank’s work. He’s a
conceptual artist who is based in
photography, but he thinks beyond any
particular medium. He’s really interested
in engaging us thoughtfully with ideas.
He’s an emerging artist who’s getting a
lot of attention for his work. His wit is
something that I relate to. Sometimes his
images are pretty blunt, but often he has
a real sense of irony and irreverence.
I feel that when we’re looking at a lot
of these old advertisements that we’re
looking at them with him and sharing
in this incredulity. He’s amazed at the
types of messages and images that have
circulated through time.
Finish the following sentences:
When I look at this exhibit I see….
American culture, for better and worse.
When visitors walk through this exhibit, I
hope they see…
Something that stops and makes them
think.
The goal of an exhibit like this is to…
Expose people to new ideas and ways of
thinking.
Is his work more provocative than
evocative?
I think he’s more provocative because
he’s taking things that already exist and
stripping them from their context.
By combining Unbranded: A Century
of White Women and Unbranded:
Reflections in Black by Corporate
America to create this exhibition and
adding captions to each work, what is
being told?
What I like about both of these series,
there are aspects of them that are
obvious, but overall there is a more
complex idea at work and there is a
revelation. And that’s that advertisers
create these images and ideas about our
identity from their own points of view,
but they also reflect aspirations that
we have in general in society. So, it’s
not like there is a sort of overarching
authority that’s impressing these ideas
on everyone. It’s sort of an exchange
back and forth. We buy into these
values to a certain degree and then
reflect it back to us. We see changes in
the ways in which we see ourselves. In
some ways the changes are progressive
and positive, and other times we see
the reemergence of stereotypes and
prejudices. It shows the complexity of
the society in which we live in and how
see ourselves. And finally, the exhibit
reflects the powerful impact of the
images on their own, and their ability to
influence us through their messages.
It seems that this is both a serious and
sobering look at how view ourselves,
but is it also a fun lighthearted look?
Definitely. Hank’s work would not be as
engaging were it not for the fact that he
definitely has a sense of irony and sharp
wit. I feel like he’s not condescending
to us or his audience. He’s sharing in
his experience and sharing the archives,
sharing in the incredulity of it all and
the visibility of these awful stereotypes.
Some of these images are hard to look
at and are blatantly offensive from our
perspective today.
How do you go about considering what
to exhibit at the museum?
All the curators here work together, along
with the director, to put forth a vision
about what type of work we want to bring
to our audience to show what’s important
to our culture. For me personally, I like
work that is challenging, provocative
and breaks new ground. I like work that
challenges us to think critically about the
world in which we live. I like work that’s
engaging and makes us wonder.
How and why did you choose the Hank
Willis Thomas Branded/Unbranded
exhibit?
It actually comes from a recent
acquisition we made in which we
acquired 11 works from Hank’s project
called Unbranded - A Century of White
Women from 1915-2015. A generous
donation made that possible. We felt that
Hank’s works were really provocative and
that he was doing neat stuff. Lately he’s
been getting a lot of attention for his work
that focuses on American History - the
construct of racial and gender identity
and how that manifests itself in popular
culture. It’s part of our program to engage
with the contemporary art of our time.
We wanted to be able to show it in its
entirety here. As part of this exhibit, I
reached out to him and his gallery to
see what other works we might be able
to show that relate to his engagement
with popular culture with regard to
advertising, marketing and branding.
What is Hank Willis Thomas’ most
significant contribution to how we see
ourselves?
I think he encourages us to look more
closely at the ubiquitous images that
we see in advertising and popular
culture that we often overlook. We are
so inundated with these images that
we don’t really stop to think what sorts
of messages are being sold along with
the product. He encourages us to slow
down and think critically about how we
present ourselves, how we present others,
how we see our society and what sort of
values we’re reinforcing out there. “She’s Somewhat of a Drag”