About 1865
In incubation for some 35 years, the release of this series, About 1865 coincides with the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act (March 25, 1807). While slavery has changed over the past two hundred years, it has not been eradicated.
Large close-up portraits of the war’s protagonists ~ Lincoln, Lee, Grant and Sherman ~ are presented alongside anonymous African Americans entitled Walk On, No Lines, underlying what the artist sees to be a white man’s war, with its protagonists and heroes all white. He says, “Whenever I ask people about this war they list off Lee and Lincoln etc., only once have I heard anyone mention Frederic Douglas”. A painting of the lower legs and feet of a lynching hang beside a pheasant entitled Atlanta: Better Days.
See Uncivil War, Unforgiving Nation catalogue essay by Lilly Wei
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