ArtsXchange Community Cultural Center in East Point raises a compelling question in the title of its new juried exhibition, “Whose America Is It, Anyway?” The Center dedicates itself to empowering artists and activists, and for the new show, offered the open-ended question to Atlanta artists whose unique perspectives might bring insight into the country’s turbulent social, political and racial struggles of today. On view through Sept. 30 at ArtsXchange’s Jack Sinclair Gallery, the exhibition features prize-winners selected by juror Dr. Fahamu Pecou. He joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via zoom along with Gallery curators Ric Washington and Lisa Tuttle to talk about the selected works and the conversations they inspired.
“We started out with the question of, ‘Whose America is this, anyway,’ and this came right on the heels of the insurrection on Jan. 6,” said Washington. “We thought that this would be an appropriate time to have artists weigh in on this experience because so many people were so strongly claiming ownership of this country…. We put a prospective out, leaving just enough room in there for the artists to form their own point of view – not wanting to refer to any specific movement, any particular event that was happening, and I was interested to see what reaction we would get from the artists.”
Washington continued, “I thought we would get submissions about BLM, about the Trump Insurrection, about George Floyd’s murder, and other current events that were turning the world upside down. I was pleased to see we got that and so much more.”
“Whose America Is It, Anyway” is the second juried show organized by ArtsXchange. Tuttle and Washington set up this year’s extension of the Center’s July festival, Reimagine Democracy: Art and Social Justice. Dr. Pecou served as juror, identifying first, second and third prize winners among the artists featured.
Pecou’s selection for first place, Alexis Childress, presented a piece titled “Generations of Wealth.” “This is a digital collage, a digital photograph that shows a pair of hands that have gold dipping from the hands, but the hands also appear to be bound at the wrists by thin white wire,” Pecou said. “That piece just really struck me. It made me think about the untapped potential that, particularly, a lot of Black people experience in this country, where you are bound up, limited based on racial perception. It really struck me that in this very simple way, the artist was able to capture the essence of having so much to offer but being bound up at the same time.”
