Sonya Clark is a textile and social practice artist who uses everyday objects to implicate the construction of empire and speak about the afterlife of slavery. Through her art Clark believes that within our hair is the story of our ancestors. Clark stated that “within each hair, within each thread, within each fiber extruded from our scalps is a message, the content of our forebears.” Recently, the LSU Museum of Art acquired one of Clark’s pieces as part of the Winifred and Kevin P. Reilly Initiative for Underrepresented Artists entitled French Braid and Cornrow, which is currently on view alongside other recent acquisitions by Black artists including Letitia Huckaby, Carrie Mae Weems, and Madelyn Sneed-Grays. This piece (pictured above) refers to Clark’s Jamaican heritage, where the cornrow hairstyle is called cane rows, in reference to the island’s historic economic dependence of sugar cane. This cash crop heavily influenced the Atlantic Slave Trade in the Western Hemisphere, which brought economic prosperity to the United States and other colonial powers such as Britain, Spain, France, Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands, who were participants in the slave trade.
The threaded French braid on the left honors the power and history of African American hair, and on the right a cornrow is braided in cloth to symbolize the use of natural resources such as cotton or sugar cane that contributed to the success of the western economy. Clark’s work also shares stories of healing by focusing on how African Americans continue to navigate their racial heritage in relation to the United States and the African Diaspora. Although Clark uses thread for her French Braid and Cornrow piece, she often uses human hair from willing participants. The specific use of African American hair in her work expounds upon Clark’s view that styling Black hair is an African diasporic art form. Her first major survey was at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) entitled Sonya Clark: Tatter, Bristle, and Mend. She sees hair as an object, symbol, and currency for organizing the world.
French Braid and Cornrow and the exhibition Collection Spotlight: Recent Acquisitions by Black Artists are on view until September 26, 2021. The Winifred and Kevin P. Reilly Initiative for Underrepresented Artists will continue to support the growth of the LSU MOA’s permanent collection through 2021.
Artwork: Sonya Clark (American, b. 1967), French Braid and Cornrow, 2013, cloth, thread, and wood, Purchased with funds from the Reilly Initiative for Underrepresented Artists, 2021.4
Written by Clarke Brown, LSU MOA Curatorial Fellow