20 Odd
Journey: 400 Years 1619-2019, Carter Art Center at Metropolitan Community College, Penn Valley Campus, Kansas City, MO, October 4–December 6, 2019.
In 1619 the crew of The White Lion brought 20 enslaved African people to the British colony Jamestown, Virginia. This marked the start of 250 years of slavery in North America. The 20 silhouetted figures in the center of this quilt are cut from different fabrics with African countries printed on them-- a signal that although their individual identities have been lost, these men may not have all come from the same place.
Using
commercial, contemporary fabric to depict a historical subject, Sara Sonié Joi
Ruffin stitches together the present and the past. Her art shows the legacy of
the slave trade and its effects on our present moment in the United States as
we continue to confront violence against Black people.
Purchased from the artist by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2019.