Esa Palabra Mar and This Word Waiting (This Word Sea and This Word Waiting)

Images(3)

Esa Palabra Mar and This Word Waiting (This Word Sea and This Word Waiting)

Artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons Cuban, born 1959, active United States

Date2008

MediumPolaroid prints

DimensionsDiptych: each 40 x 24 in. (101.6 x 61 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LineGift from the collection of Dr. Carlos Garcia-Velez and Dr. W. Kent Davis in honor of Lawrence J. Wheeler

Object number2015.1.1/a-b

On View

Not on view

Label TextFor many communities across the African diasporas, there is a sacred connection to water. Particularly for descendants of enslaved Africans transported across the Atlantic Ocean, water has served as both purgatory and refuge. Here Campos-Pons abstracts the human form and horizon “to make them into one,” evoking themes of memory, entrapment, and an attachment to the landscape.

In her words, “I come from an island. Continental experiences and borders are so meaningful, and to be surrounded by water is quite a unique and magnificently humbling thing. There is no place to go except to the sea.”
[M. Brooks, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]ProvenanceCreated Boston or Nashville, 2008; collection of the artist; [Julie Saul Gallery, New York]; Dr. Carlos Garcia-Velez and Dr. W. Kent Davis, Chapel Hill, NC, 2008; given to NCMA, 2014.

Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Director’s Cut: Recent Photography Gifts to the NCMA,” April 4–September 13, 2015.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–May 1, 2023. Object Rights Statement

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