Jamal Cyrus
Further images
“A Witness” memorializes the contributions of an important civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, who was arrested and beaten by police in Mississippi in 1963. The FBI investigated this incident and Cyrus uses a document from their files, incorporating the bureau’s redactions into his own composition. His use of torn denim strips, glued together, mines the history of denim and its association as “slave” or “negro cloth”.
Provenance
From the artist's studio; Private Collection
Exhibitions
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond VA, May 22 - September 6, 2021: Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX, October 23, 2021 - January 30, 2022
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art: March 12 - July 25, 2022: Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver: September 2022 - February 2023 (exact dates TBD)
Jamal Cyrus: Currents and Currencies, Inman Gallery, Houston, TX, November 8, 2019-January 11, 2020