Shotgun Review Archive

Unbranded by Hank Willis Thomas

I always get a thrill from the elevator ride up to Lisa Dent's fourth floor gallery overlooking Mission Street. The elevator must be as old as the building. It's the type that has an exterior door and a sliding interior cage, both of which are operated manually. Alarmingly there is a stone tile floor in the elevator--something you might see in a high-end residential bathroom. Visual contradiction aside, "why," I wonder, "permanently increase the burden on this antique machine?" I imagine the cables, pulleys and motor straining under the weight of this hulking old car, plus the stone tile and me, and wonder if it will hold. I was having this thought on my way up to see the equally weighty work of Hank Willis Thomas. His new series of photographs, "Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America," focuses on black stereotypes in advertising over the past few decades. The photographs are actually photographs of photographs--images taken from advertisements depicting blacks engaged in various activities. The corporate logos, tag lines and ad copy have been removed, leaving only the telltale sign of enlarged halftone dots (these can only be seen upon closer inspection) and some truly strange images. Freshly untethered from their utilitarian function of selling products even the most familiar of these images invites new meanings. "Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil's Son in Law" Image Courtesy Lisa Dent Gallery For those who follow contemporary art the strategy of "rephotographing" advertising images from magazines is nothing new. Richard Prince's rephotographed Marlboro ads from the 1980's are perhaps the most well known example. But Willis Thomas' use of this strategy is more politically overt and arguably less aesthetically motivated. That said, the work in "Unbranded" is more ambiguous than Willis Thomas' past work--not as message driven as his "Branded" series from 2004 nor as obviously personal as the film, "Winter in America," that he made with collaborator Kambui Olujimi in 2005 (also currently on view at Lisa Dent and alone worth the trip). As I walked around the gallery I was alternately amused, offended, and dismayed by what I saw. In trying to read the meanings embedded in the images my own cultural assumptions were being brought into play. This sort of subjectivity is going on all the time but it became more apparent to me here. I found myself searching for points of overlap--places where my own experiences (as a white man) converged with black culture. This is, I know, a misleading exercise, but I do it all the time, in all sorts of social situations, in an effort to find commonalities. Well intentioned or not, this makes it all too easy to side step individuals. For instance, there are two images in the "Unbranded" series that seem totally benign to me--not at all evocative of the black stereotypes I'm aware of. One features a boy making a chalk drawing on asphalt and the other a group of boys jumping into a river. I thought, "These images remind me of my childhood. What could possibly be offensive about them?" Later my girlfriend reminded me, I don't get to decide what is and what is not perceived as a stereotype. How true. "Exxon: Black Street Art" Image Courtesy Lisa Dent Gallery It's not to say that I believe there is a correct interpretation of these images. Each viewer will likely have his or her own take, but Willis Thomas does have an agenda. With the removal of the original text from the ads he has also added his own in the form of provocative titles. The two for the images mentioned above are "Exxon: Black Street Art" and "Don't Let Them Catch You," respectively. While I find these to be somewhat heavy-handed and manipulative they are certainly not more so than the original ads. Speaking of his past work Willis Thomas has said "...my work leans toward the didactic side of the spectrum of art." And "What this work is trying to do is just start conversations."* With "Unbranded" Willis Thomas continues to instigate conversation around a subject that can easily become polarized. Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America will be on view through April 8th at Lisa Dent Gallery ( http://www.lisadent.com ). *Quotes from "The AI Interview: Hank Willis Thomas" http://www.artinfo.com/News/Article.aspx?a=9148&c=296