The Women's Work Issue Women's Work. Pen and Brush. 2019 | Page 44
pen + brush x of note
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Womb , Masque, and Weeping Time embody an assertion
of love and a sense of belonging—we are the work, even
as the world tries to negate our sense of self.
to and a reminder of the largest sale of
enslaved people in U.S. history, where
over 400 men, women, and children were
auctioned off in Georgia in 1857 as the sky
mimicked their tears. Taken while Smith
was in Atlanta, within the image we see
a photograph of Coretta Scott King, the
widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in what
is possibly the signing of the 1983 bill that
made MLK’s birthday a national holiday.
Once again, Smith makes past and present
merge and emerge.
Ming Smith, Masque, Cairo, Egypt, 1992. 35 mm black-and-white photography, archival pigment print, 60 x 40
inches. Courtesy of the artist.
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Women’s Work
Collectively, Womb, Masque, and Weeping
Time embody an assertion of love and a
sense of belonging—we are the work, even
as the world tries to negate our sense of self.
This erasure denies our multi-faceted selves
and robs the rest of the world from powerful
and beautiful possibilities.
History, and art history, repeatedly show
us how women have been disregarded
and continue to be omitted. Through her
work, Smith reminds us that our lives are
multilayered and complex, and it’s okay if
unexpected contradictions live alongside
each other. And here, Smith is creator,
mother, and photographer. An artist
asserting herself—quite literally inserting
herself—in ways that confront the invisibility
the world has imposed.
In these images, the artist is saying: I am
here. You can try to not see me, but I belong.