Tag Archives: Panel 61

Allan de Souza’s Panel 61

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The story of migration is ongoing. In the final, 60th panel of The Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence leaves us with the words “And the migrants keep coming.” The Phillips has invited contemporary artists to continue Jacob Lawrence’s work. Check the recently launched Jacob Lawrence website for additional works to be unveiled in this dynamic curated selection, or contribute your own #Panel61.

allan-desouza_the-world-series

Allan deSouza, Entry (from The World Series), 2011. Digital print, 12 x 16 in.

Allan deSouza, Entry (from The World Series)

The artist’s multimedia work explores the relationship between individual experience and historical and ideological constructs. In his Intersections installation for the Phillips in 2011, The World Series, deSouza responded to Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series with 30 photographs taken on his travels around the world that capture the condition of people on the move.

Ahlam Shibli’s Panel 61

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The story of migration is ongoing. In the final, 60th panel of The Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence leaves us with the words “And the migrants keep coming.” The Phillips has invited contemporary artists to continue Jacob Lawrence’s work. Check the recently launched Jacob Lawrence website for additional works to be unveiled in this dynamic curated selection, or contribute your own #Panel61.

ahlam-shibli_arab-al-sbaih_no-29

Ahlam Shibli, untitled (Arab al-Sbaih no. 29), Jordan, 2007. Gelatin silver print, 15 x 22 3/4 in. Courtesy of the artist © Ahlam Shibli

Ahlam Shibli, untitled (Arab al-Sbaih no. 29), Jordan

The series of 47 photographs constituting Arab al-Sbaih were taken in four different places: the Irbid Refugee Camp, Irbid City, the al-Baqa’a Refugee Camp, and Amman. Three generations of Palestinian refugees have been living there since the 1948 war that followed the declaration of the Israeli State and resulted in the Palestinian Nakba. The title of the series references the original name of the village Arab al-Shibli in the Lower Galilee of Palestine (currently Israel). A part of the villagers who fought for their lands in 1948 against the Jews were expelled to Syria and Jordan; the other part took shelter at the Mount Tabor Monastery. After several months of hiding in caves on the land of the monastery, at the end of the war, the families who managed to return to their homes had to change the original name of the village, Arab al-Sbaih, to Arab al-Shibli in order to protect themselves from Israeli revenge. The refugees in Syria and Jordan on the other hand are preserving the memory of their homeland by naming their shops after places in Palestine and reproducing the social structure of their original villages.

Glenn Ligon’s Panel 61

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The story of migration is ongoing. In the final, 60th panel of The Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence leaves us with the words “And the migrants keep coming.” The Phillips has invited contemporary artists to continue Jacob Lawrence’s work. Check the recently launched Jacob Lawrence website for additional works to be unveiled in this dynamic curated selection, or contribute your own #Panel61.

glenn-ligon_ruckenfigur

Glenn Ligon, Rückenfigur, 2009. Neon, Edition of 3 with 2 artist’s proofs, 24 x 145 1/2 x 4 in.

Glenn Ligon, Rückenfigur

Glenn Ligon’s Rückenfigur (2009) is an example of the artist’s painted neon sculptures. Ligon is best known for exploring the limits and meaning of language with his text‐based work. In this piece, neon letters spell out “America,” Ligon’s homeland, and a frequent subject of his practice. The title “Rückenfigur” is a German term for a figure seen from behind; often used in an art historical context, it describes a figure in the foreground of a painting, surveying the scene before him, with his back to the viewer. Likewise, although the word “America” is legible to its audience, the letters face the wall, away from the viewer—the non‐symmetrical letters indicating the characters’ true direction. Ligon reveals the back of the word, inviting a consideration of multiple points of view and dichotomies in American culture.