Review by Rehema Barber

In Number: An independent arts journal/Summer 2011

Solo Exhibition @ The University of Memphis

"Lied, Tied and Dyed", a solo exhibition at the Jones Gallery, University of Memphis. Organized by Lester Merriweather. Feb. 24 through March 25, 2011. View images of the exhibition here.

Reviews:  
Number: An Independent Journal of the Arts, by Rehema Barber (page 18).
"Lied, Tied and Dyed" reviewed in the Memphis Flyer.
 "Suzanne Broughel's Lied, Tied, & Dyed Is A Must See In Memphis", Global Grind.
               

Exhibition at Marlborough Gallery

June 3 - July 9, 2010 (view catalog)

Curated by Diana Campbell and Eric Gleason.

(updated july 2011)

Solo Show @ Aljira

This installation - "The Sensitive White Intellectual" - draws its title from the 1960's historical document "Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Position Paper: The Basis of Black Power".  Created during the Triangle Artists Workshop and installed here at Aljira Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, NJ.  Materials: bed sheets, pillowcases, t-shirts, white cotton gloves, skin bronzers, clothesline, clothes pins, shoelaces.

Art Supplies

"White Confidante of a Black Panther (Self-Portrait as David Horowitz)" is a tie-dye made using self-tanning lotions on a white bed sheet.

40 Acres of Bandaids (Every Shade of Bandaid for Sale Within 40 Acres of the African Burial Ground, NYC) by Suzanne Broughel

This is a wall sculpture made from bandaids on fabric. I did an "inventory" of every shade of bandaid for sale within forty acres of Manhattan's African Burial Ground. The result was 22 shades of light toned bandaids and one dark brown shade. The dark brown bandaids were Ebonaide brand bandaids - a discontinued product for dark skin tones that I found at a 99 Cent Store.

The African Burial Ground

The African Burial Ground is a site in lower Manhattan that was unearthed in 1991. Workers constructing a government building came upon a field of human bones - half of which were those of children. This forced an acknowledgement of New York's suppressed history of slavery. The area in red is the forty acre area in which the bandaids were purchased. Forty acres is a symbolic amount of land representing the "forty acres and a mule" promised, but never delivered, to freed slaves.

Bandaid Chart

Here is a chart of all of the bandaid shades, and a list of locations where they were purchased.

Show at P.S. 1/MOMA

Here is "Forty Acres of Bandaids" on display at P.S.1/MOMA, as part of the group exhibition "Bearable Lightness...Likeness". Summer 2006, curated by Franklin Sirmans. The show also included work by Louis Cameron, Michele Kong, Sungmi Lee, Todd Pavlisko, Milton Rosa-Ortiz, and Cory Wagner. (photo by Matthew Septimus).

Conceal As You Heal Photo Project (ongoing)

Random volunteers are asked to put on a dark brown Ebonaide brand bandaid. They are free to place it anywhere on their body. Ebonaide is an actual brand - now discontinued - manufactured for a broader range of skin tones. For this project, I usually use just the two darkest shades: "mocha" and "licorice". The photos shown here were taken on Manhattan's 42nd Street in front of one of Chashama's art spaces, where I was participating in the show "Love, Art & War".

Fear of a Black Planet

Ebonaide brand bandaids on clear plastic. Approx. 5' x 7'.

Underground Railroad Exhibition

This installation was featured in the Underground Railroad Exhibition at Northern Kentucky University - an exhibition co-sponsored by the Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was timed to coincide with the opening of the Freedom Center in 2004. The title of this installation - "Conceal As You Heal" - is a slogan taken directly off of the packaging of Ebonaide brand bandaids (the dark brown bandaids used in my work). The installation consists of a 6' x 9' plastic sheet of bandaids stretched tautly across one corner of the gallery. From the exterior, only light skin tones are visible. The interior space brings the viewer into close contact with the "buried" dark brown bandaids, along with photos on the wall of people of various skin tones wearing the brown bandaids. The plastic sheet of bandaids uses the same "palette" of bandaids established in my earlier work "Forty Acres of Bandaids".

Bandaid Boxes

Reinterment Ceremony at the African Burial Ground

I took this photo at the Rites of Ancestral Return ceremony at the African Burial Ground, October 2003.

Uh-Obama: Racism, White Voters and the Myth of Color-Blindness

Tim Wise (author of "White Like Me") writes: "The extent to which Obama's white support has been directly related to his downplaying of race issues simply cannot be overstated..." Read more at this link. (originally posted 3/16/08)

Suzanne Broughel's Interview in Nat Creole Magazine

I recently did an interview with Nat Creole magazine. Read it here.

Slavery in New York Website

In 2005/2006, the New York Historical Society had a groundbreaking exhibition called Slavery in New York. One of the most shocking things I learned in this exhibit (there were many shocks) was that at the height of the slave trade during colonial times, New York was second only to Charleston, South Carolina as a slave trading port. This is so shocking because it was always taught in schools that slavery was an institution of the Southern United States alone. Even today, alot of New Yorkers remain unaware of the African Burial Ground and the existence of slavery in New York.

Check out the Historical Society's website about Slavery in New York

Victims' Symptom @ Labforculture.org

This blog was selected for inclusion in an online project at labforculture.org. The project, titled Victims' Symptom, was curated by Ana Peraica.

Link to More Artwork

You can see more of my work here and here.

CONTACT

sbroughelstudio@gmail.com