Ligon’s ‘Changes’ confronts political, social, personal conflicts

By Margaret Tung | Thresher Editorial Staff

From video installations to silk screens sprinkled with coal dust and from the beginnings of his artistic experiments to pieces capturing the Million Man March, New York City native Glenn Ligon has a truly distinctive artistic voice.

For the first time in his career, Ligon has created a comprehensive tour of his inspirations. Glenn Ligon: Some Changes proves expansive, with diverse choices of media and coverage of social, political and personal conflicts. The exhibit debuted yesterday at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston.

Visitors are first greeted by Ligon’s immense installation created specifically for the CAMH space: a colossal black and white American flag serving as an interactive chalkboard. Guests are asked to write what it means to be an American to them, and are immediately confronted by Ligon’s impression of art as a work in progress.

In his works regarding the Million Man March, Ligon recognizes the contrasting messages sent by participants. Although the march was a step toward equality, the artist points out that women were not allowed to participate.

Through his work on Hands (1996) and We’re Black and Strong (1996), viewers are shown that social and political changes can be made even when the movements themselves are flawed.

Untitled (2002) and Untitled Contact (2002) exhibit revision in the grammatical rather than the social. To create Untitled Contact, Ligon pressed Untitled against a white canvas before the oil-stick dried, creating a mirror effect with the text. The use of coal dust in the Untitled pieces is not only an aesthetically radiant treatment of the black pigment, but also shows that black does not have to be the absence of color.

In Ligon’s light-based installation depicting the words “The Negro Sunshine” — which features black neon illumination — he once again asserts the color black as a means of highlighting, rather than shading.

The phrase, which Ligon has used before in his work, is taken from Gertrude Stein’s Three Lives. The light installation cleverly captures the play on words in a silent yet dramatic fashion.

Revisions on text are also made in I Am A Man (1988) and Condition Report (2000), in which age and wear are the agents of change. Both the Untitled and I Am A Man revisions hearken to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, in which identity is considered through the colors of black and white and the symbolism of mirroring.

But Ligon does not always refrain from using color in his work. The Richard Pryor paintings — started in 1993 — are done with remarkable flair and seem appropriately timely considering the bold comedian’s recent death.

Pryor’s jokes, in all of their politically incorrect glory, used racial tensions to break convention and create comedy. Here, Ligon’s colorful portrayals of Pryor’s sketches seem to accurately reflect the voice and words of the comedian. The bright, almost neon texts and backgrounds reflect how Pryor would deliver his comedic punches.

Although art is always an extension of the artist, it is rare that an artist lets others into his personal life as plainly and powerfully as Ligon does. In the television installation Orange Feelings and Blue Feelings (2003), Ligon invites his audience to his own therapy session containing a discussion about a missing piece. The artist also reveals his childhood through End of Year Reports (2003), in which his teacher comments detail his academic progress and his interests in adult novels. The look back on the artist’s childhood is both humorous and down-to-earth, and shows another dimension of Ligon and his work.

Throughout all of the deeply revealing pieces in Some Changes, Ligon leaves the viewer intrigued by his deliberate uses of color and reflections on change, and alludes to a deeper mystery behind his often obvious intentions.

January 20, 2006

The Student Newspaper of Rice University

Ligon’s ‘Changes’ confronts political, social, personal conflicts

Other arts & entertainment stories

News

Sports

Opinion