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| Abigail DeVille photographed during the installation of her public art project The New Migration. Photo by @joshuacogan via Facebook. |
Jacob Lawrence inspired installation creates scrap
Text | Peggy McClone for the
WashingtonPost.com
Published | September 12, 2014
First there was singing and
dancing. And then the complaining began.
A storefront art installation in
Anacostia that is part of 5x5, the city-wide
public art festival, will be removed after community members complained that it
looked like junk.
The D.C. Commission on the Arts
and Humanities said it will take down “The New Migration” by Abigail
DeVille, a found-art project installed in a down-at-the-heels section of
Good Hope Road SE.
The work opened with a “sunset
procession” featuring musicians, dancers and community members who marched in
the neighborhood last weekend. The accompanying art installation in two
storefronts was expected to be on view through December.
DeVille, an African American
artist from the Bronx, journeyed from Washington to Florida to collect objects
for an installation that evokes the Great Migration of African Americans who
fled north during the Jim Crow era.
Inspired by a Jacob Lawrence
painting, DeVille connects the historic migration to the gentrification that
now forces many African Americans from their homes.
But community members bombarded
city officials with complaints about the work, which they described as both an
eyesore and offensive. City officials should promote the area’s redevelopment
rather than contribute to its blight, they said.
“It’s one of our main
thoroughfares, and people walk down the street and look through the window and
see what appears to be junk, ” D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8)
said. “It’s embarrassing.”
A spokeswoman for the D.C
Commission, a city agency that supports local artists and arts groups, said
organizers are seeking a new site for the work.
“The
intention of the project is to challenge and engage audiences through art but
never to offend. The community reaction has been that the work is not suited to
the location. As good stewards of the public trust, DCCAH has determined to
remove the installation from its current location,” the spokeswoman said in a
written statement.
This is not the first time local
residents reacted negatively to the 5x5 festival. In 2012, a piece was taken
down, the commission said.
The $500,000 public art event
includes five curators and 25 artists who have installed a wide range of art in
neighborhoods across the city. They include “Nonuments,” a work honoring
non-heroes in a park near the Waterfront Metro station in Southwest, and a mural
in a Northeast neighborhood depicting how today’s housing policies will affect
future generations.
Some works will be on view through
next month, while others are scheduled to come down in December.
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