“I see no one, no one sees me” is an installation in two parts and will be Stan Woodard’s first solo exhibition. The work is Woodard’s response to and commemoration of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot.
Stan Woodard
I see no one, no one sees me
September 21 - November 4, 2006
4681 Ashford Dunwoody Road, Atlanta GA 30338
Opening reception - Thursday, September 21, 7- 9 p.m. (Free and open to the public)
Gallery hours - 11 am – 5 pm, Wednesday through Saturday.
“I see no one, no one sees me” is an installation in two parts and will be Stan Woodard’s first solo exhibition. The work is Woodard’s response to and commemoration of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot.
For this piece the artist will occupy the two front galleries of the exhibition space. In the first gallery an overhead projector will allow visitors to select and display from among 100 images representative of the progress of African Americans since 1906. The second gallery will be used to explore collisions between the natural and material worlds.
On September 22, 1906 a powder keg of racism, fueled by unsubstantiated reports of a black crime wave in Atlanta, exploded into organized incidents of white men attacking black people. For three days and nights the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot claimed the lives of at least 25 black citizens and hundreds of others were injured; many feel that the causality numbers were under reported. Source: http://www.1906atlantaraceriot.org
“Although this work is created in response to the events of 1906, my intention is not to point fingers at the perpetrators but to examine the progress of black Americans since that time. It is difficult to deny that African American culture, including the contributions of notable individuals, is a main driver behind American pop culture,” said Woodard.
According to the artist, the evidence of Black Americans Impact on culture is clear - from sports and entertainment to political and social discourse. However, this influence has notalways been for the best, for instance, in the case of Willie Horton, whose case was publicized by George H.W. Bush's successful 1988 Presidential campaign. The positive impact of other Black Americans, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, is global; yet in the case ofCondoleeza Rice, the contribution of a Black American is more highly regarded among the White than the Black community. Says Woodard, "I'm not trying to draw any conclusions with this commentary, but there may be some ways for people to think differently about race and identity in America."
The second gallery will be home to a shrine of sorts where visitors can contemplate human desires and the inevitable cycles of life. With elements of fabric, concrete, rusted metal, and suggestive lighting and audio, Woodard will examine how the weight of materialism interrupts natural existence.
Also on view at the Spruill Gallery from September 21 – November 4 will be Linda Armstrong’s “Field Studies: Failed Encyclopedic Dreams”
Stan Woodard is an artist living and working in Atlanta, GA. He works primarily with found materials to create installations and objects. Multimedia regularly figures into his installation work and he produces stand-alone multimedia, video, audio, and interactive digital works as well. Taking an archeological approach to found materials he often comments on the histories of places and objects. Woodard is the recipient of the KBFUS (King Baudouin Fellowship US) award for 2003-2004, and has shown in Atlanta, Birmingham, AL, New York, and Hong Kong.
Spruill Gallery, a branch of The Spruill Center for the Arts, primarily shows contemporary and frequently cutting edge art of the southeast region. It is located at 4681 Ashford Dunwoody Road, Atlanta GA 30338. Gallery hours are 11 - 5, Wednesday through Saturday.
