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| Wendel A. White, Bordentown, NJ. Image courtesy of Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ. |
Schools
for the Colored
July 18 – September 7, 2013
Artist Talk/Roundtable discussion: Saturday,
September 7, 2013, 2-4pm
591 Broad
Street
Newark, NJ
Aljira, a
Center for Contemporary Art is pleased to present Schools for the Colored, A
Portfolio of Photographs by Wendel A. White.
In The
Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois describes an early school experience, “I was
different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but
shut out from their world by a vast veil.”
Schools for the Colored is a continuation of
White’s journey through the African American landscape. He began making photographs of historically African
American school buildings during the first weeks of his Small Towns, Black Lives project more than twenty years ago. Wendel
White describes that “the images in Schools
for the Colored place structures and sites that operated as segregated
schools under the lens, depicting landscapes that were associated with the
system of racially segregated schools established at the southern boundaries of
the northern United States. Schools for the Colored is the
representation of the duality of racial
distinction within American culture.
This area, sometimes referred to as
“Up-South,” encompasses the northern “free” states that bordered the slave
states.”
Schools for the Colored is the representation
of the duality of racial distinction within American culture. According to the
artist, the “veil” (the digital imaging technique of obscuring the landscape
surrounding the schools) is a representation of DuBois’ concept, informing the
visual narrative in these photographs.
Some of the images depict sites where the original structure is no
longer present. As a placeholder, White
inserts silhouettes of the original building or what the artist imagines of the
appearance of the original building.
The
architecture and geography of America’s educational Apartheid, in the form of a
system of “colored schools,” within the landscape of southern New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois is the central concern of this
project, according to White.
Education is very necessary for the development of the people and the country. Artists can also participate in emerging the importance of the education in the people with their art.
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