Men's Lives

Men’s Lives brings together black and white men for conversations about all aspects of their lives with the aim of creating close connections, accessing true knowledge and the sharing of insights.  This project includes dialogues, collaborative printmaking and a video capturing the men’s insights and visions.

DIALOGUES

We met approximately 8 times for dialogue and listening with the goals of building close connections and healing historical and personal hurts caused by racism.

ART MAKING

A large-scale photographic silkscreen portrait of each participant was be created (sic) using photographic screen-printing methods at Artists Image Resource.

VIDEO INSIGHTS

Footage on race relations were captured by the Mural Bridge Project, the Artist, and hyperboymedia.

PRESENTATIONS 

Exhibitions of the project will be presented at the Black and White Reunion 2003 Summit on January 11, 2003 and at Artists Image Resource on April 4 – 6, 2003.  With the assistance of the Mural Bridge Project, the installations will travel to various venues with the goal of extending the dialogue on race relations through the sharing of personal stories.

Artists statement:  One of my observations during the dialogues, and listening project work for the Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America exhibition at the Warhol Museum (2002), was to find men to be the most emotionally open to show crying, anger, confusion and trust.  This was not surprising, since most of the photographs depicted men as either evil perpetrators or victims.  The Men’s Lives project is meant to be a contradiction to this representation and the silence present in the lynching photographs, by creating a place for trust and dialogue between men and by the creation of portrait prints that honor each participant.  The Men’s Lives project brings together important elements from my artistic practice, my Re-evaluation counseling work and my education phylosophy.

This project is supported by the Warhol, the Black and White Reunion and the Ford Foundation’s Animating Democracy Initiative to continue and expand dialogues on race-relations with the community.