This is WESA Arts, a weekly newsletter by Bill O'Driscoll providing in-depth reporting about the Pittsburgh area art scene. Sign up here to get it every Wednesday afternoon.
“Ekphrasis” is the fun term for a vivid written description of a visual artwork.
I guess the term for a visual interpretation of written material is just “art.” But ekphrasis came to mind when viewing DS Kinsel’s “August Taught Us …,” an exhibit at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.
Kinsel, co-founder of the creative hub BOOM Concepts, spent a couple years as the August Wilson Archive Community Artist-Scholar, exploring Wilson’s archives, housed at the University of Pittsburgh’s Hillman Library. One result is a gallery full of art inspired by Wilson’s life and work, including his famed Century Cycle of plays, from “The Piano Lesson” to “Gem of the Ocean.”
True, some of these artworks are actually text-based themselves, with one painting in Kinsel’s distinctive hand listing the “Four B’s,” as Wilson called his main inspirations (Romare Bearden, Amiri Baraka, Jorge Luis Borges and the blues). Another series of five paintings honors Wilson’s wise quote “All art is political in the sense that it serves someone’s politics.”
Other pieces incorporate everything from Civil War-era news clippings, hair-product ads and headlines from play reviews (“Wilson loses touch in ‘Hedley’”) to another Wilson quote, “Have a belief in yourself that is bigger than anyone’s disbelief” (which Kinsel playfully edits to “yourself that is bigger than anyone”).
A series of 10 collage-based works interprets each of the 10 plays in the Cycle. Kinsel draws on publicity photos, clippings from playbills, marketing materials and other imagery, from African statuary to Bearden prints.
There’s plenty of room here for interesting reverse-ekphrastic interpretation. Why are all the musicians in the “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” piece upside-down? Why does the “Fences” piece include images of John Brown, Marcus Garvey and Queen Nefertiti? In a number of works, Kinsel also provocatively pastes a slip of paper with variations of the N-word scrawled in red. Discuss.
In the middle of the gallery sits a writing desk that also curiously suggests Wilson’s inspirations and legacy. It’s draped in a patterned cloth, with papers referencing his plays but also: a pocket-sized volume of New Testament psalms and proverbs; a ceramic cup holding a peacock feather and some dollar bills; a pair of dice; and a paperback book of Central African folk tales.
“August Taught Us …” runs through April 6. Admission is free. The gallery is open Thursday through Sunday, and two special in-person events remain. On March 28, Kinselland Radio (that’s Kinsel and his wife, vocalist Anqwenique) presents a “vinyl-driven sonic experience” inspired by Wilson’s personal record collection. And the April 5 closing reception and artist talk features a conversation between Kinsel and Center literary curator Jessica Lanay.
Through March 30 at the Wilson Center, you can also catch the second annual “Envisioning A Just Pittsburgh” exhibit, a region-wide project of the Center, Pitt, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Museums and 1Hood Media. After an open call, curator Morgan Overton chose work by 40 adult and youth artists imagining a more equitable and inclusive future in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, video, writing and even clothing.
While some works promote justice for the community as a whole, others highlight the struggles of particular groups, from people with special needs to LGBTQ folks. “Unseen Hands” comprises two portable walls of black-and-white photos of the hands and faces of the homeless, by Matthew Raffaele and Emily Powell. A graphic-design-style illustration by Bahirah Muhammad envisions one aspect of justice as nothing more than going clothes-shopping without facing discrimination. “Something like this is unrealistic now but I hope I can live to see the day when my sisters and I can exist as our most comfortable selves … in whatever space we want to be in,” Muhammad writes in wall text.
Poems and short essays are displayed on a table in the center of the gallery. In Caleb Sewell’s essay “What if a ‘Just Pittsburgh’ is no Pittsburgh at all?,” Sewell posits that the city is “organized around Black suffering” to such an extent that if it were to become just for Black people, we wouldn’t even recognize it.
The late August Wilson, who as a child and young man faced his share of exclusion and inequity in Pittsburgh, might well have nodded knowingly.
We’re experiencing life in Pittsburgh along with you. We’re all curious about the world and want to find solutions to problems in our neighborhoods, schools, and government. Our reporting helps you do that.
WESA’s role in our partnership with you is to investigate, interview, report and produce. We’re asking you to be involved. WESA thrives because of community involvement and listener contributions.
When you give, you’ll be doing something great for yourself and your family, and others across the entire region. Everyone benefits from an independent news organization that has the community’s best interest in mind. That’s WESA. Please make sure everyone has access to this essential news source.
Your gift of $10 a month, or any other amount, makes this work a reality.
Christopher Ayers, News Director
