‘Scrawlspace’ visually reimagines texts from artists via the Black experience

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Exhibitions are boldly educating the public on important writings and the transfer of knowledge. “Scrawlspace,” a recent exhibition curated by Lucia Olubunmi Momoh and Emily Alesandrini, was formerly on view at The 8th Floor, an independent exhibition and event space. The exhibit spotlighted a group of artists visually reimagining and exploring language, texts and writings epitomizing the Black experience. Pieces in the show displayed obscured texts and images created from alphabets, as well as graphics and other writing visuals, contributing to the concept of the evolution of words beyond their present meaning.

The exhibit’s title originated from the phrase “crawl space,” inspired by the life of Harriet Jacobs, the African-American abolitionist and writer who hid in a crawl space in her grandmother’s attic for seven years to escape enslavement. Jacobs spent her time writing, reading, sewing and protecting her children from a distance in that space before strategically escaping in 1842. Momoh said Fred Moten, a Black poet and theorist, described that the scene of writing for Black people is “cramped yet capacious.” “And that’s the curatorial theme in many ways of the show – it’s ‘cramped’ for a contemporary art exhibition, yet capacious,” Momoh said.

“Scrawlspace” featured Black artists who delved into the historically charged relationship with illiteracy; this has been an issue for African Americans since the United States government prohibited Black people from reading and writing centuries prior. Momoh, a Black Ph.D Yale graduate who studied African American studies and the history of art, explained the creativity of words beyond words as well as censorship. “Thinking through the burning of books, the destruction of texts – the different ways that Black people have used words and have used either writing or oral traditions.” Momoh vocalized this African protection to neutralize oppressors attempts to suppress our education.

The show’s attendees witnessed drawings interlaced with words and coded graffiti. Sonya Clark and Shinique Smith’s artwork reflected Momoh’s perspective as well as the two artists transforming words beyond writing. Clark and Smith’s works related well to each other and were smartly placed on the same wall. “They speak so well to this wall because music and writing and alternate forms of creation are really essential to both Shinique Smith and Sonya Clark’s work,” said Momoh. “Shinique Smith is speaking through graffiti and calligraphy, alternate forms of art and communication in writing.” According to Momoh, Smith shared her ability to identify one of her older graffiti tags which is very coded at an art talk for the exhibition. Smith purposely created graffiti for only those in her community to understand.

Brenika Banks photos

Momoh and Alesandrini, both scholarly in tune with lesser-known conceptual artists, are an effective duo. They purposefully chose artists who perfectly matched their vision for the show. “I think it’s really important for Lucia and I to spotlight these artists who are oftentimes evoking the body without necessarily directly representing them,” said Alesandrini. The art historian spoke about Shinique Smith’s “Firedog” piece which depicts book censorship. “We see it as a reference to a long history of book burning – a means of censorship, of silencing authors and writers with valuable information,” said Alesandrini. “Also, thinking about fire as a potential source for regeneration and growth.”

The usage of Black hair textures as art certainly showcases growth in a society that inflicted pressures of only accepting hair mirroring European standards. Shinique Smith created her own alphabet using letters inspired by the natural coils from Black hair. Alesandrini interpreted Smith’s work as a way which exposes, “colonizing and overly ambiguous nature of the Roman alphabet.”

Sonya Clark’s “SCHIAVO hair drawing” featured the Italian word “ciao” spelled with Black hair. “Ciao” refers to the word “schiavo” which means “slave” in Italian. Alesandrini vocalized Clark challenging viewers to be aware of language and to “think about the consequences of this unseen, often unknown, lingual inheritance and question what are the consequences for this inheritance.”

Momoh vocalized how essential it is to be a Black curator. “It’s important centering Black voices right now and to be centering them in a way that doesn’t foreground the body,” said Momoh. She believes Black people’s bodies are often used as art by Europeans, historically only valued in museums as an exhibit. Now, Black curators have opportunities to intentionally create exhibitions highlighting and properly crediting Black artists. “Black art is so much more than figurative work and Black experiences are so much more than our bodies,” said Momoh.

Momoh anticipates “Scrawlspace” continuing, expanding and relaunching using the same or similar artists. “This is not a final version – and our word is not the last word on this,” said Momoh. She hopes more artists will pay attention to language, texts and images. She advises people not to be intimidated by Black conceptual artists because of truths and hidden information embedded in their works.

Sources: https://library.harvard.edu/confronting-anti-black-racism/education#:~:text=Between%201740%20and%201867%2C%20anti,learning%20to%20read%20or%20write.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9132061/#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20only%2018%25%20of,for%20Education%20Statistics%2C%202012).

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2923.html