Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2022.

Images(2)

Red, White and Blue and (Black) or, THE BLUEST SIGH

Artist vanessa german (American, born 1976)

CultureAmerican

Date2021

MediumFound: handmade Black woman cloth toilet paper roll cover, (isn't she darling?), rage, wood dowels, my own fat ass, blue bottles, rhinestone beads, depression, wood, AstroTurf, masturbation, blue textile, where will I go to find peace, blue buttons, heartbreak, old doll parts, Black pigment, suicidal ideation, adhesive, meanness, blue beads from Iran, how it feels to be mistaken as a cleaning lady, rhinestone eye patches in blue, dating website algorithms, blue cloth, a miracle, one inch foam, My own glorious survival, antique baby shoes--untied.

Dimensions22 × 13 × 10 in. (55.9 × 33 × 25.4 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2022.26

Collections

Glass Art

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 119, Case 64

DescriptionThis is a multimedia sculpture in the shape of a person, which is affixed to a two-part stepped base that is covered in green AstroTurf. The figure is short and wide, and the body is completly covered with small elements (both found and purchased at flea markets. antique shops, etc.) in an overall palette of blue: small cobalt-blue, cylindrical glass medicine bottles; medium to large beads of turquoise and blue in glass, ceramic, and plastic, round or cylindrical in shape; small, tubular blue beads; crystal-shaped, gray-blue plastic beads; bundles of blue seed beads and sequins; two ceramic roses, glazed in blue, placed at the rear of the figure's waist. The figure's head, hands, and feet are created from different doll parts: the head is a Black rag doll dressed in red-and-white checked fabric with an apron and hair kerchief (stereotypical Mammy image) that the artist identifeis as a toilet paper roll cover; the two hands come from a ceramic doll and have been painted black; the feet are antique baby shoes of black leather with untied laces. All these elements have been arranged and adhered to an underlying structure made of wood, dowels, and foam.
ProvenanceCreated during a Residency at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, 2021 to Pittsburgh Glass Center's Art on Fire auction, September 16, 2022 to CMA.Exhibition HistoryGathered Locally, Pittsburgh Glass Center, October 1, 2021 - January 18, 2022.