Welcome to Afro City

During my time in Iowa, my research has been focused on the pineapple as a symbol which represents welcoming and hospitality. This investigation into the rituals and the action of being welcomed or hospitable to others is from my own experiences. I have encountered many struggles in negotiating public spaces as a black man and person of color in Iowa. Through this inquiry, I have discovered that the tradition of the pineapple as a symbol for hospitality is rooted in slavery and agricultural colonization of South America, the Caribbean, and the Southern United States in particularly, South Carolina and my home state of Georgia. When slave ships brought enslaved Africans to port, the foreman placed a pineapple on a spicket. The pineapple now becomes the beacon to identify a new shipment of enslaved Africans have arrived. Thus originating the pineapple as a symbol for welcoming.

From this research my art practice pulls from my interest in history, science fiction, and hip-hop culture. The artwork references the visual traditions from the Southern United States, Caribbean, South America, and the African continent. I utilize printmaking, installation, and performance to elevate the importance of my ceramic sculptures as a historical and creative base material to inform memories of the past. The handling of clay reveals the process and shares the markings of its maker. Ceramics becomes a bridge to conceptually integrate disparate objects and or images for the purpose of creating new understandings and connections with the material, history, and social-political issues. I compare the construction and deconstruction of materials to the remix in rap music and how human beings adapt to different environments and reinvent new identities. These ceramic objects are vessels, each making symbolic allusions to the black body.