Please note: This interview was originally planned as a celebration of Juneteenth, the day commemorating the ending of enslavement in the United States of America and had been scheduled with the artist before the recent uprisings and protests across the United States. After discussion with the artist, we agreed to continue with the planned interview as it was more important than ever to celebrate Juneteenth and Ms. Lovell’s moving work.
Why do you make your work and what are the main concepts that your work addresses?
The main concept behind my work has always been to uplift people of African descent, women in particular. My work exposes my audience to people of African descent who have been left out of the traditional historical narrative. The work can explore personal experiences as well as history and contemporary issues.
What materials and techniques do you use in your work?
I explore the narrative potential of cloth and clothing. I believe they have the ability to communicate and document like any other artistic medium. I use cloth as a medium and most often clothing as the form. I enhance the narrative through fibers and various forms of surface design. I refer to myself as a Stitching Griot. A griot is a storyteller or oral historian in the West African tradition. Clothing, in my opinion, is one of our most intimate relationships. Every day we figure out how we are going to present ourselves to the world through our clothing choices. In return we are perceived by the world through the clothing we wear. Whenever you see an item of clothing, whether in a gallery or museum, you know it is connected to a human being.
June 19th is Juneteenth, the day celebrating the end of enslavement in the United States. Could you describe the kanga that you created to commemorate Juneteenth?
I decided to make a kanga, which is an African textile worn in east Africa, particularly in Kenya, Tanzania. They are worn by women and sold in two panels, approximately 60 inches long and 40 inches wide. They are generally composed of a border, a central motif and a proverb most often written in Swahili. The central motif on my kanga is an oak tree. It was based on the Emancipation Oak on the campus of Hampton University. The historical marker near the tree states that the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, was read to Hampton residents under the tree. Above the oak tree, I have written “Emancipation Day June 19, 1865” and below it, “Juneteenth”. 1865 is the celebrated date because that is the date it was finally read in Texas, the last and most remote slave holding state. Union General Gordon Granger arrived with troops in Texas on June 18th to take control of the Confederate state, and on June 19th the proclamation was announced. “Juneteenth” is a combination of “June” and “nineteenth”. The kanga is primarily red, white and blue representing the United States of America. The border is a chain that has been broken in each corner to symbolize the end of bondage. The stars and stripes are created with cowrie shells, a seashell at one time used as currency in Africa and culturally important to people of African descent. Many enslaved Africans brought these shells with them during the Middle Passage as they were small and easy to hide. They were vestiges of home and have been found in many historic places where enslaved Africans lived. Cowrie shells were found in the kitchen of a home in Jamestown, Virginia, where Angela, the first enslaved African woman, was brought to the English colonies in 1619 as a so-called indentured servant. I chose an excerpt from a speech given by Frederick Douglass in 1852 as the proverb for the kanga. It says, “What to the American Slave is your 4th of July?” In America, we celebrate the 4th of July as Independence Day, but in 1776, people of African descent in the United States were not free.
Do you have a particular piece that you feel especially resonates with the present moment in the United States?
I think all of my work is particularly relevant at this time in US history. The Warrior Women of the African Diaspora series depicts African descended women throughout history who fought for the freedom and empowerment of all people of African descent globally. But, if I have to choose one most relevant to this moment, it is a piece I made in 2017 called Legacy of the N-word:N-slaved, N-carcerated, N-sanity, N-destructible! It was created in anticipation of 2019, 400 years since the first Africans, including Angela, arrived in Virginia for the purpose of enslavement. This is a performance piece juxtaposing two young black men (and at times, a young black woman replaced one of the men) wearing garments representing the oppressiveness of existence for people of African descent in the United States. One performer is dressed in a hybrid garment I created combining a straitjacket (insanity), with restraint sleeves that morph into the handles of a 9-foot cotton picking sack that extends behind the performer (enslaved), with a pouch, stenciled with 1619, on the front of the jacket where the sleeves pass through that are reminiscent of prison uniform numbers (incarcerated). The other performer wears a long black hoodie I created in remembrance of Trayvon Martin. I printed the number 2019 on the kangaroo pocket and the number 400 on each sleeve. On the back of the hoodie is a symbol that at first looks like a shooting target. It is actually a Kongo Cosmogram or Dikenga dia Kongo. It represents the four stations of life or the four moments of the sun: birth, life, death and rebirth (indestructible). Although Trayvon Martin was brutally murdered, he was not destroyed! Today, eight years after his murder, his name is being shouted around the world in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality against African descended people all over the globe. While the man in the straitjacket was restrained, the man in the hoodie wore black leather gloves, with one arm raised in a clinched fist honoring the fearlessness of the Black Panthers and their call to action, “All Power to the People!”. Cotton bolls surrounded the cotton-picking sack, and empty bullet casings surrounded the feet of the performer wearing the hoodie. When the female performer wore the hoodie ensemble, she had a 3-D printed female symbol pendant hanging from her neck. As evidenced by the recent murder of Breonna Taylor, police brutality is not reserved for black males only.
The effects of enslavement are still affecting the lives of African Americans today, every day. The brutality that African Americans received as enslaved human beings in the United States of America, and all over the world, is the same brutality we are receiving today through state-sanctioned police brutality.
What final thought would you like to leave our readers with?
I would like to leave the readers and the members of TSA with this. I am compelled to make work that uplifts and honors people of African descent first and foremost. I also strive to balance out the white-supremacist version of history through my work. This racist, traditional version of history has for over 400 plus years created the moment we are experiencing now. So, I would like to close with two quotes from one of the greatest Warrior Women of the African Diaspora and voices in the African American struggle for freedom, Dr. Angela Y. Davis.
I feel that if we don’t take seriously the ways in which racism is embedded in structures of institutions, if we assume that there must be an identifiable racist who is the perpetrator, then we won’t ever succeed in eradicating racism.
– Dr. Angela Y. Davis
In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.
– Dr. Angela Y. Davis
Further Links About Precious Lovell:
For more information on the work by Precious Lovell, please see her website: preciousdlovell.com
And, check out her recent Instagram Live conversation with Dr. Jonathan Square of “Fashioning the Self”:
Precious Lovell is an artist, designer, maker, and educator. Her work has been exhibited in the US and internationally. She is currently an Associate Professor of the Practice at North Carolina State University. Her presentation at TSA Vancouver, “Reinterpreting European Cloth Through Afro-Brazilian Culture” addressed the war shirt she made to commemorate Maria Felipa de Oliveira while an artist in residence at the Sacatar Institute. This war shirt is part of her ongoing Warrior Women of the African Diaspora series.
Member Monday is a new TSA initiative to highlight the work of a different TSA member each month on TSA News. To submit suggestions for Member Monday features, please see our submission guidelines at our Submit to TSA News page on our website.
You must be logged in to post a comment.