%C2%A9 Deana Lawson
Nation, 2018
Deana Lawsonexpand_more
Pigment print with collaged photographexpand_more
The Geoff and Kelly Gage Endowment for Art Acquisitionexpand_more 2019.26
Not on Viewexpand_more
Taking aim at the viewer with little more than an unflinching gaze, the men within this image send a piercing glance through the frame, the sitter on the left pointing as if in recognition of an interloper. His mouth bared with an elaborately fanged orthodontic device, the man to the right seems paradoxically at ease and grotesquely tormented, his mouth a hole of pain. The duality of his demeanor is further underscored by the presence of a set of wooden dentures that appear in a trompe l’oeil image at the top edge of the frame. Photographed as if it were set into the top right edge of the frame, the image is an oblique but unmissable allusion to the dentures worn by George Washington, which were fabricated from human teeth. This searing reminder of the criminal wages of slavery--Washington obtained the teeth of enslaved people for his own mouth--renders the image an icon of 21st century photography, situated within a rapidly expanding canon of work by African American artists.
Details
- Title
- Nation
- Artist Life
- born 1979
- Role
- Photographer
- Accession Number
- 2019.26
- Curator Approved
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© Deana Lawson