CHANNELS
a black and white rainbow arches over stacks of white eyes on black paper, at the tops of the paper stacks, the eyes begin to pull out of the stacks, their heads and necks coming out into the rainbow
Issue 3 Summer 2020, Visual Art, Visual Art 3.0

Sam Vernon

August 5, 2020 | by

SAM VERNON — Drawing & Printmaking

How Ghosts Sleep

two black hands hold a white sheet over their body through the sheet, an eerie toothy smile emerges

hi

pen and ink xerox | 2011 | 8.5 x 11 inches

black and white image featuring a crowd of black faces with their mouths, eyes, and faces partially covered by white hands

gossip

pen and ink xerox | 2011 | 8.5 x 11 inches

a pair of disembodied black legs appear to dance and move in mid-step; the legs extend into a buttocks and torso that are patterned in the center with concentric eye shapes circles

legs

pen and ink xerox | 2009 | 8.5 x 11 inches

a black and white rainbow arches over stacks of white eyes on black paper, at the tops of the paper stacks, the eyes begin to pull out of the stacks, their heads and necks coming out into the rainbow

ghost rainbow

pen and ink xerox | 2011 | 11 x 8.5 inches

Artist’s Statement

 

The infusion of Afro Deco into my formal practice is unmodified in that I combine disparate objects and 2D media to develop a visual language influenced by pattern, graphic design, the human figure, and abstract shapes. I create Xerox drawings derived from printmaking techniques, lithography, and intaglio to construct narrative. I draw, Xerox, and print at each stage of an image’s evolution: deleting, adding, and collaging until the image is complete. The result is subject to re-­contextualization within an installation, a performance, or a work to exist on its own.

I explore drawing as technology and question how the image is transformed when it is reproduced as direct digital media. The active “ghosting” of an image, copying and multiplying the original, subtly exploits the notion of a pure identification of black and white, and signifies the essentialism of symbolic meaning and all its associations. In addition, the subjectivity of an otherworldly psychic state or realm comes into play.

I look to Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s social lyric: “We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes…This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties.” Tapping into the power of masks, or ghosts, as a timeless art form—and then translating that spiritual information for present-­day audiences is complex. The investigation of this irony fuels my work, an interdisciplinary approach fused to my meta‐history, shaping a looser chronicle to explore postcoloniality and historical memory. Through site-­specific, staged installations and urgent performances, my goals are towards the production of Gothic visual art in which Black narratives are included in the expanse of the genre.

portrait of artistSam Vernon earned her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 2015 and her BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2009. Her installations combine xeroxed drawings, photographs, paintings and sculptural components in an exploration of personal narrative and identity. Sam lives in San Francisco, CA and teaches Print Media as an Assistant Professor at California College of the Arts (CCA). You can see more of Sam’s work at her website and on Instagram at @samevernon.