COLLECTION NAME:
Undergraduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Defending Public Memory: James "Double Dutch" Kimble's Black Holocaust Memorial
Creator:
Weaver, Christian
Subject:
Thesis (B.F.A.) -- Art History
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Art History
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
"This essay analyzes the traditionally 'outsider' public art practice known as Yard Art and, more specifically, Savannah based outsider artist James "Double Dutch" Kimble's 'Black Holocaust Memorial' and its use of public memory as a tool for larger public pedagogy. The sprawling memorial installation located in Dutch's back yard, which he has been actively working on since 2002, began as a response and challenge to the municipal commission of Dorothy Spradley's 'African American Monument' and has since evolved dramatically in dialogue with the institutionalized memorial culture of Savannah, narrating chattel slavery's undeniable social and cultural reverberations. Scholars like C. Tsehloane Keto and James E. Young define this type of historical interpretation as public memory because it accounts for the inherent filtration of history through a subjective interpretation, informed by the recounting entity, while providing space for varying interpretations. Arguably, public art serves as an intervention of public memory in the larger sphere of history. What makes this possible is the foundational concept that public art is informed by the public interest to establish communal spaces, often with thoughtful consideration of this idea of the larger public memory. However, it must be remarked that memorializing an accepted history often fails to hold adequate space for the many dimensions of memory, as it freezes a moment in time to objectify it in the name of synthesis. As an alternative to this purely reconstructionist historical approach, works like 'Black Holocaust Memorial' act as an intervention of the inherent flux of history. Additionally, this analysis seeks to highlight the importance and deficit of honoring, preserving, and documenting these methods of public memory-keeping to maintain a collective cultural testimony that would otherwise be completely lost with the passing of the artist." --Abstract
Keywords: African American Monument, Black Holocaust Memorial, James "Double Dutch" Kimble, memorial, monument, Outsider, public art, public memory, public pedagogy, Dorothy Spradley, Yard Art
Keywords: African American Monument, Black Holocaust Memorial, James "Double Dutch" Kimble, memorial, monument, Outsider, public art, public memory, public pedagogy, Dorothy Spradley, Yard Art
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia: Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2023-05
Format:
1 online resource: 1 PDF (Thesis, 72 pages, color illustrations)