For me, traversing the streets of Soho can often be an exercise in refuting what’s safe and expected. Navigating crowds of young socialites who are in transit from one brunch scene to another, tourists with or without rolling suitcases but always with askance glances of “why are YOU here”, or others on their way to one adventure or workplace. On this suddenly rainy June Saturday, I was on my way to the Hauser & Wirth gallery to catch an artist conversation for a set of works I had been longing to see.
Thomas J. Price’s works of sculpture have stirred the imagination, and this was in full display with “Grounded In The Stars”, a 12-foot-tall figurative bronze sculpture that is currently on display in Times Square. The figure, a Black woman in casual t-shirt, jeans stands expectantly with her hands on her hips. Her eyes are steady, not steely. Her face, framed by braids, to me conveyed contemplation but not tension. According to the press release from Times Square Arts who commissioned the work to be on exhibit, Price created this fictionalized character from images and open calls from London to Los Angeles, deepening the everyday connection to be present in the work. It drew a lot of acclaim, and quite a bit of racist brushback that would do the most notorious Afrikaner and the dregs of what used to be Twitter proud.
Walking into the gallery, I immediately felt that sense of wonder looking up at each of the five sculptures that make up “A Place Beyond”. The sculptures are installed directly on the floor, and you can’t help but move around each of them to see every detail. Each character felt intimately close to me,and I found myself placing them in different scenes and cities I’ve been to from being on the Coliseum block off of Jamaica Avenue in Queens to Amsterdamse Poort in The Netherlands. The detachment I experienced with other large sculptures and statues that demanded reverence without connection wasn’t present. Especially without the pedastal that one often sees with statues of that size. These hit different than Kehinde Wiley's "Rumours of War" outside of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, but with the same power.
“Within The Folds (Dialogue I)” brought that home for me. Seeing this bronze figure, someone that reminded me of one of my brothers or nephews, conveyed in such majesty tore that reflex detachment that was drilled into me by seeing works by Michaelangelo and others out of my spirit. In the conversation Price had with Yale Center For British Art Executive Director Courtney J. Martin, he touched on that feeling with his works: “I wanted to confront the official account of greatness, the official account of value.” Because that is the unfortunate element of art that is regarded highly - it is a dominant sphere of white men. The “standard.” But Price’s works challenge and to a degree, allows those who observe it to discard that standard for the one that feels most familiar to them. They exist and you feel like they always have.
I found myself looking over at “A Place Beyond” as Price and Martin talked. The statue stands out not only because the character is cast in gold, but she stares off as if she’s eyeing the future that these works are pointing the way to, in their own way. Her demeanor struck me as being slightly different than the others in the expression that whatever she’s seeing,is hope. Hope in the midst of rest from a world that denies her and others like her an abundance of either. Price spoke of his aim with these works, to critique and protest already accepted ideas of portraiture (he said that each sculpture began as a portrait) and to interrupt those ideas at the start of learning about art to encourage diversity.
Price also spoke about space and presence being defined with each work, which struck me, particularly when he said: “I’m very interested in this idea of misidentification, because Ive been misidentified. ” The impact of these works are deeply profound - one attendee broke down in speaking with him, and I totally understood why. Each of these sculptures represent a new idea of heroism and the space it demands. A space that recognizes and validates us in parity and quiet vindication through identification.
“Resillience In Space” is on view at Hauser & Wirth until June 14th. “Grounded In The Stars”, in conjunction with “Man Series”, is on display until June 17th.