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Reframing the Past

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Image of brown-skinned figure wearing a turban superimposed on black-and-white landscape of Venice

Time spent contemplating an artwork and the challenge of interpretation make room for ambiguity and lingering questions. Artists in this section use a variety of strategies to frame historical moments, from recycling visual tropes to creating alternative narratives. They encourage us to consider new perspectives on the past and offer opportunities to better understand a complex and uncertain world. How have artists used the past as source material for understanding the present? What role does imagination play in that process?

These highlights were part of WHO SAYS, WHO SHOWS, WHAT COUNTS: Thinking about History with The Block’s Collection, a 2021 exhibition that explored how art, artists, and museums engage with narratives of the past. To learn more about other artworks and key themes in the exhibition, check out Place and Memory, Institutions Critiqued, and Critical Portraits.

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Log cabin assembled from stacked firecrackers that are covered with paper that has printed text
Paul Ramírez Jonas
1993
Scribbles resembling an abstract face incised into black wax on top of white tile
Rashid Johnson
2015
Landscape with horse at center, brawling humans on both sides, and text reading “ANTI-RETRO”
Andrea Carlson
2018
Aunt Jemima busts through the front of a pancake and waffle mix box. American flag in background
Murry DePillars
ca. 1969
Sculpture of a metal shelf with glass tiles and stretched canvas with an image of stacked notebooks
Lorna Simpson
1993
Bright embroidery of a crowded landscape with people, some fallen, and a car, plants, and buildings
Rose Kgoete
1999/2007
Montage of various cultural figures and themes, including an artist, Aztec figure, and cartoon girl
Enrique Chagoya
2000
Four grotesque winged figures surround a woman who has the face of Barack Obama and gestures upwards
Enrique Chagoya
2010
White paper embossed with the front page of "The Birmingham News,” headlines and text barely legible
Bethany Collins
2016
Two photos; above, a dark-skinned man and a light-skinned woman holding a baby; below, a white house
Rachel Monosov
2017
Black background with white triangle and text "There is nothing revolutionary about approxima-tions"
Kameelah Janan Rasheed
2019

Black background with white text reading “1 + 1= 2”, “we already human!^16”, “But lazy equations…”
Kameelah Janan Rasheed
2019
Image courtesy the artist and NOME
Kameelah Janan Rasheed
2019
White outlines of distorted circles and ovals in six rows with text on a black background
Kameelah Janan Rasheed
2019
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