Standing Before Grace (as Grace Jones)

This object was selected for the collection as part of an annual student-led collecting initiative undertaken by the Block Museum Student Associates (BMSA), an interdisciplinary group of Northwestern undergraduates.

Standing Before Grace (as Grace Jones) (2015, printed 2020) shows the figure of the artist posed in the middle of the frame without clothing other than two red pieces of material around his stomach and calf. In this work, Woods-Morrow digests and reinterprets Grace Jones’ iconic cover art for her 1985 album Island Life. The photograph was originally created by Jean-Paul Goude for a story in New York Magazine in 1978 and was created using a series of shots cut together to give the appearance of acrobatic impossibility and grace. Woods-Morrows’ version is the artist’s attempt to achieve the impossible-seeming image without editing. Here, Woods-Morrow tries to create an empathy with celebrity by placing themselves in the very stances and gazes that sensationalized these star’s bodies. Jones’ 1985 cover art hung from the bedroom walls of millions, to highway billboards, to mass produced t-shirts, to skin as tattoos.

Mayán Alvarado-Goldberg, Neuroscience and Global Health ’24 Solome Bezuneh, Communication Studies ’24 Gabrielle Bliss, Chemical Engineering and Data Science ’25 Carolina Carret, Legal Studies ’23 Zayn Elmasry, History and Science in Human Culture Program ’24 Kevin Foley, Gender & Sexuality Studies ’24 Elle Gordon, English Literature ’23 Zeki Ülgür Hirsch, Art History ’24 Ipsita K, Art History and Social Policy ’24 Katy Kim, Art History and Political Science ’23 Jaharia Knowles, Journalism ’25 Rowan McCloskey, Dance and Political Science ’26 Nozizwe Msipa, Communication Studies ’24 Margeaux Rocco, Economics ’23 Bengi Rwabuhemba, Cultural Anthropology and Global Health ’2023 Meena Sharma, Learning Sciences ’25 Toy Suliman, Asian American Studies and Radio, Television, Film ’23 Tamara Ulalisa, Journalism and Political Science ’24 Joyce Wang, Economics, and Radio, Television, Film ’24 Bobby Yalam, Comparative Literary Studies and Economics ’24 Hank Yang, Journalism and Religious Studies ’24

Block Museum Student Associates select work by Derrick Woods-Morrow as 2023 Student Acquisition