By Stephanie Avery.
Thursday, Feb. 8, the Jepson Center of the Telfair Museums hosted a lecture in collaboration with the Savannah Black Heritage Festival called the W.W Law Lecture. The lecture featuring the Atlanta based artist Paul Stephen Benjamin, who discussed the newest installation of his exhibit in the museum.
The exhibit is a collective work based on his meditation on the color black, and what it means to him. The lecture was moderated by Rachel Reese, Telfair Museums associate curator of modern and contemporary art, who posed questions regarding the artist’s work and why he presented his ideas the way that he did.
Often people associate different colors to mean different things. There is a certain expectation or weight held within certain colors that is different depending on the hue. Inspired by contemporary painter, Raymond Saunder’s, response to writer Ishmael Reed’s perception of black artist Benjamin delves into what it means for him to be black and an artist. “That idea of balance between expressing who you are, and aesthetics and concept became very important in my path,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin allows his work to reflect his own deep appreciation for the color black without the pressure of having to live up to an already established expectation. This allows the artist to fully immerse himself in processing why things like color are so impactful and how a person represents that speaks a lot about them as a person. Benjamin explained that this gives leeway in the ongoing conversation regarding color and what it means to express yourself as who you are and not how people perceive you or your work.
Benjamin produced contemplative works of art that don’t just center around the color black but explored different shades of black and their industrial names. With colors such true black, very black, new black, pure black, black beauty, well-bred brown, cotton and watermelon he would create text based art along with monolithic paintings that were placed side by side in comparison of the colors. “I wasn’t thinking about the titles,” Benjamin said, “I was just interested in finding something to uniform the objects, to make them uniform, but in-between that time I began to realize that someone actually made a color ‘well-bred brown’ and what does that mean?”
Benjamin also makes American flags that are completely black. There are a few in the exhibit, but there is a huge one in one of the government buildings in Atlanta. His exhibit also features a collection of TV screens that play Aretha Franklin and Lil’ Wayne singing two different versions of ‘God Bless America.’ Though in another installation the screens play Billie Holiday and Jenifer Hudson singing two versions of ‘Strange Fruit.’
Thought provoking and intriguing Benjamins work allows us to consider a different way of seeing the color black, and how we interpret it as the viewer. “It’s important that it allows people to be comfortable talking, ” said Cheryl Davenport Dozier, president of Savannah State University. “People are walking on egg shells because we don’t know how to have this conversation. His art is a safe way to have the conversation. Talking about the people may not be, but the art is – and that’s what art does.”
