Feature Friday w/ Julian Alexander
What is the role of the artist in social and racial justice activism work?
Art is always going to move culture. Art is powerful and taps into emotions that we suppress in our day to day experience. You could cry from watching a movie and access that emotion on command. That’s power. Every artist will assume their own roles in activism naturally because everyone has a different side of the story; but their primary responsibility is to be honest in whatever story they choose to tell. Racism is dehumanization. To be racist is to approach a group of people without acknowledging individuals or the nuances of their experience. When artists are telling their stories and using imagery specific to them, they’re actively making work that is human, and simultaneously antiracist.
"Fruits of Our Labor" Graphite and Acrylic on Paper
Please speak to the importance of Black history in your life as an artist in the 21st century
Soul Food comes from enslaved African people being fed scraps and creating dishes that we still eat today. Hip Hop was created from looping fragments of songs at house parties in The Bronx, and has evolved into the most popular genre of music in the country to this day. These, among countless others, are perfect examples of the fact that Black Americans continually create and invent when all odds are stacked against us. This legacy lives and breathes in me and my peers every day, and it’s important to acknowledge that Black History is the direct source of a lot of who we are today. Not just as an artist, but as a person, I know that I’m forever indebted to those that came before me.
"Magic." Acrylic and Graphite on Paper
"Seeking Solace" Acrylic on Canvas
How does your own racial identity influence how and what you create?
My racial identity is tied to the very same history that is embodied in my work. The figures in my paintings and drawings are either black or some person of color. They might be adorned in a sweater from an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), or have a Black Panther Party logo emblazoned on their shirt. They may have locs or cornrows or waves in their hair. There’s so many aspects of black culture that are commercialized and repackaged for high fashion and white America, but not a black body in sight. Such a world does not exist in my work. In my paintings, black and brown people are free to exist without the surveillance we deal with in reality. That’s why I’m definitely careful not to have my work feel overly posed. The more casual it is, the better. My work represents Black people being allowed to exist without having to justify their existence or seem pretty or marketable. They might not even be looking at the viewer of the painting. A lot of the times their eyes will be closed or they’re occupied with doing something without concern that they’re the subject of a painting.
"Painting Study 1/21/21" Acrylic on Canvas