{"id":8929,"date":"2021-05-24T14:03:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T18:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/?p=8929"},"modified":"2021-06-08T16:40:08","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T20:40:08","slug":"stone-gallery-design-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/2021\/05\/24\/stone-gallery-design-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Design Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The exhibition As, Not For: Dethroning Our Absolutes<\/em> as seen through the Stone Gallery\u2019s new floor-to-ceiling windows at night.<\/p>\n

Traveling exhibition, As, Not For: Dethroning Our Absolutes<\/em>, highlights work of African American artists<\/h2>\n

By Mara Sassoon | Photos by Tony Luong<\/p>\n

Frustrated by<\/strong> the underrepresentation of Black artists in his field, Richmond, Va.\u2013based graphic designer and educator Jerome Harris decided to launch an extensive research project on African American figures in the history of the practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was mostly seeing white men as the faces of graphic design. I wanted to prove to myself that folks who looked like me had been here all along,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

That body of research became a traveling exhibition, As, Not For: Dethroning Our Absolutes<\/em><\/a>, which came to BU\u2019s recently renovated Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery for a three-month run this past winter.<\/p>\n

Harris says the title is derived from the writings of Alain Locke, a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. The first part, As, Not For<\/em>, comes from a passage in Locke\u2019s 1925 anthology, The New Negro<\/em>, which Harris says \u201ccalls for the expression of Blackness as it exists, and not for anyone\u2019s approval.\u201d The second half is from Locke\u2019s later essay, \u201cValues and Imperatives.\u201d \u201cIn the context of the show, it is a direct way to invite patrons to challenge what they have already accepted as \u2018design history\u2019\u2014\u2018dethroning our absolutes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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A view inside the exhibition: artists\u2019 work was reproduced on posters that streamed down in long banners from the ceilings.<\/p><\/div>\n

The exhibition includes work by African American graphic designers over the past century, such as Buddy Esquire, well known for creating early hip-hop concert flyers; Laini (Sylvia) Abernathy, who designed jazz album covers; and graffiti artist Phase 2. The artists\u2019 work was reproduced on posters of various sizes that filled the Stone Gallery’s walls or streamed down in long banners from the ceilings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of work that needs to be done in diversifying art and design education. The work by the African American designers featured in As, Not For<\/em> reflects voices that were always there, but might not have been highlighted or discussed in the classroom,\u201d says Mary Yang, an assistant professor of art. Along with graphic design students Ashlie Dawkins (\u201922), Gabriela Ferrari (\u201922), Jay Li (\u201921), and Angela Lian (\u201921), she helped curate the show at the Stone Gallery. \u201cIt was important to bring this work to BU to form a conversation around the work: What has been neglected in design history? What work and who are we promoting and why?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yang and the student designers took advantage of the Stone Gallery\u2019s renovations\u2014which saw floor-to-ceiling windows replace the street-level concrete fa\u00e7ade\u2014in planning the show. Some pieces were prominently placed on walls that faced the windows that open out to Comm Ave. At night, the prints were illuminated by purple light so passersby could clearly see the art.<\/p>\n