Today we visited 2 places. The first being the Harvey B. Gantt Center. The Gantt Center is home to many African-American artworks. While there we visited 4 unique exhibits. First was the Harlem Notes containing artwork made by Jordan Casteel. We learned that in her art, she always started by drawing the face, more specifically the eyes first. That is because it tells the heaviest part of the story. What is seen in the face tends to set the mood and explain the rest of the piece. We were also told that she expressed a lot of thoughts through the color schemes. Most of the people she met, she met the day of and she would use the color to help express the person and their personality
Our next exhibit was titled fatherly figures and it was a series of photographs taken by Zun Lee. The purpose of this exhibit was to help African-American fathers fight the stereotypes given to them. It is often believed that these fathers are not in the picture of their child’s life, but the photos helped us to realize that in most cases that is anything but true.
3rd we visited The Future is Abstract which is a compilation of 4 artists. One of the first things are tour guide told us was that with abstract work it is only 50% complete. That is because the first 50% is done by the artist and the other half is done by the person looking at it and their imagination. We learned this through and exercise in which 4 people were selected to state what they saw in a piece. The answers ranged from blisters to Christmas trees. The colors, shapes, and materials played a major role in the interpretation of the piece.
Last but not least at the Gantt Center we visited the Nature of Us exhibit created by Alison Saar. The exhibit’s pieces almost always contained either roots or moths. That is because Saar believes that all parents should give their children 2 things, roots to their family but also wings to be their own and follow their dreams.
After the Gantt center, we visited the Latta Plantation where we learned what life was like for Mr.Latta and others in the time period. We first learned that kitchen was in a building separated from the house due to its likelihood of burning down. They also had a fire going year-round that was made from 3 elements. Oxygen, something to burn, and an igniter which was usually quartz or flint. Mr. Latta was a slaveholder and he had the cash crop cotton. There were 3 types of slaves on his property, however; we only know of one specific slave. Her name was Suki. She was originally tasked with taking care of the children but later moved to the kitchen in hopes of starting her own family. While they don’t know much about her, they do know that by her death she had taken the Latta name. Mr. Latta was a rich man and this was shown through many of his actions. For example, his parlor was painted completely blue, which at the time was only made from indigo which was a pricey commodity of the time so by having an entire room of blue color he was really displaying his wealth. The family also contained sugar which was another pricey item to have in your house at the time. Before leaving, the last thing we learned was where the saying sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite came from. Sleep tight was because they slept on a rope bed and it had to be tightened each night before bed, and because of the materials used in beds bed bugs were common so the mattress was flipped each night, but this didn’t do much to stop the pests. And with that, it was a conclusion of our tour and we headed back to Cary.
Written by: Taylor