In ‘The World We Make’ at Hauser & Wirth London (until 23 December), American painter Amy Sherald raises critical questions about the position of Black bodies in Western art
London. You have likely encountered her work before. Upon rising from relative obscurity Sherald went on to paint the official portrait of the 44th First Lady of the United States of America Michelle Obama and thecover image of Breonna Taylor, whose unjust killing by the American police force was one of the catalysts for 2020’s summer of protests. However, in ‘The World We Make’, Sherald returns to her roots.
, essays on her work by Kevin Quashie and Jenni Sorkin as well as behind-the-scenes photographs of her process.© Amy Sherald, Courtesy the artist andThroughout the exhibition, Sherald’s visually stunning works pop in bold primary colours. Within them rests hints at the possibility of a paradigm shift and the tools for the transformation of consciousness. A diptych of two Black men on raised dirt bikes as if reenacting a jousting scene on horseback hangs on a wall.
On a guided tour of the exhibition, which spans two halls, led by Sherald, we discussed the centrepiece of one showroom, titled. The piece reimagines the iconic photograph of a man and woman kissing in Times Square on VJ Day. Here she replaces their white bodies with Black ones in her signature grayscale palette which she elucidates in an effort to circumvent hierarchies of personhood associated with caste.
, the author calls to attention the integral role feminism and the civil rights movement played in the transformation of public discourse and consciousness around body politics. She shines a light on the ways in which Black men have historically been viewed as ‘more body than mind’ bound up in ‘racist paradigms of subjugated embodiment’.
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