Art review: Metalsmith David Clemons at National Ornamental Metal Museum
The metalsmith David Clemons scrutinizes and mocks racial typecasts in nine sublime pieces -- mainly forged from silver and steel -- now at National Ornamental Metal Museum.
David Clemons' "Phat Grillz"
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The 35-year old artist used the anti-lynching ballad "Strange Fruit" as inspiration for the strange and alluring "The Trees We Construct to Conceal Our Strange Fruit," a foot-high silver teapot encased in a cage of steel branches. And he etched the song lyrics into a set of silver cups for "Palliative Measures (Julep Beakers)."
In both works, his craftsmanship is superb -- the teapot is wrinkled, as fleshy and fluid as human tissue, while the lynching noose that pours out of one julep beaker is as delicate as a Tiffany necklace.
The song, says Clemons, a Texas native who currently lives in Little Rock, is "something I grew up with."
"Billie Holiday's version makes you want to cry," he notes. "Nina Simone's version makes you want to get up in arms."
The juxtaposition between sorrow and anger pervades other pieces, including "Remembrance Rosary," a string of sterling silver rosary beads, which exhorts viewers to "Remember Now To Change/To Change Now Remember."
"I sent out a request to friends to send me the most memorable remembrances of their life when they were identified as a black person," says Clemons, who included those incidents in a handmade leather book and inscribed the rosary with dates and phone numbers corresponding to each event.
Although a shot of humor guides "Works Everytime," a silver rendition of a crumpled paper bag that holds a quart bottle of Colt 45 malt liquor, and "Phat Grillz," a brass mirror emblazoned with a portrait of a gold-toothed black figure, they're also infused with an underlying sadness, an understanding of cultural merchandising, and an indictment of Southern rap culture.
With these works, Clemons explores the similar ideas of Austin, Texas-based painter Michael Ray Charles. "I worked with Michael Ray Charles when I got my BFA from the University of Texas," Clemons says. "I never had him for a class -- he was more of a mentor for me. In one of the last conversations I had with him before I left Austin, he asked me if I ever felt any obligation to address race or identity. I started writing stuff down in my journal, and those ideas began crystallizing in my work."
"Most of this work comes from my own experience," says Clemons. "I've always had to contend with the struggle of being black enough. Other kids made fun of me because of the way I spoke, because I didn't listen to the music they did, or because I didn't play the sports they did. Friends would call me 'Bill Cosby black.' But there's a whole range of different kinds of black people in the world."
His "Protecting the Piece" is a human-sized leather harness attached to an elaborate, form-fitting silver protective cup. The work addresses the perceived spectrum of black sexuality, from virile slave to nude model.
"I was doing some research when I came across advertisements for slaves where sexuality was used as a marketing tool -- 'ensure that you have a strong slave stock.' You also had black men being lynched, castrated and sexually defaced, because their sexuality was associated with a certain degree of fear. Later, black sexuality was celebrated, but it's still used as a marketing tool," says Clemons.
Clemons' artistic statement is amplified by the precious metals he uses to construct his work.
"There's a certain allure that polished metal has," he says. "If you make it beautiful, you can use it as a vehicle to discuss subjects that are daunting and harsh."
Twelve works by Jeffrey Clancy, a Maine-based metalsmith, round out the work in this show, called "Tributaries III: Exterior/Ulterior." Clancy's pieces, which deconstruct usable objects into purely ornamental work, serve as an interesting foil for Clemons' super-charged oeuvre.
Tributaries III: Exterior/Ulterior
Works by David Clemons and Jeffrey Clancy at the National Ornamental Metal Museum through Aug. 24. Go to MetalMuseum.org
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