7 Caban
Red Resonant Earth
I set down
A Ring of Fire
The Bone
The Feather and the
Cone
My Territory mark
I lay in waiting
Still – until
You crossed
The confines
Of my Heart
The Ring of my
Wondering
The Ring of my
Wandering
You braved the Limits
Of my Rage
My Childhood died –
Fear fell as well
When true Love spoke
You broke the Spell.
©Kleomichele Leeds
Vanessa German
Vanessa German (b.1976) is an American sculptor, painter, writer, activist, performer, and poet based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Her sculpture often includes assembled statues of female figures created with their heads/ faces painted black and a wide range of attached objects flowing outward including fabric, keys, found objects, and toy weapons.
Her work is held in numerous permanent collections including the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and has been reviewed by Sculpture and discussed in The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, and on NPR's All Things Considered. Her art has been featured in a wide range of galleries, museums and traveling exhibits, including the 2012 "African American Art 1950-Present" touring exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution. She was a 2015 recipient of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant.
Early life
Vanessa German was born in Wisconsin and raised in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles and Loveland, Ohio by her mother, a fiber artist, quilter and costume maker. She is the third of five children. She moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2000 and began to perform and exhibit her work locally. She describes her work as heavily influenced by her childhood in Los Angeles, where her mother encouraged the children to make their own clothes, and she was also impacted by the AIDS epidemic and drive-by shootings.
Artistic career
A self-taught artist, much of German's artwork is collage and sculpted assemblages. German's sculptural work frequently includes female figures that she calls "power figures" and "tar babies". She creates them by decorating and painting large dolls and figures, then sculpting outward, and adding a wide range of materials including, for example cowrie shell lips, plastic guns, feathers, bottle caps, seashells, toys, and vintage products. She often uses found and donated materials from her Homewood neighborhood. She describes discovering that her work included elements similar to the central African tradition of nkisi nkondi, guardian statues pierced with nails and other materials.
Her materials list for works often include both the physical (e.g. cloth, paint, keys) and non-tangible materials (e.g. "the names of all the dead boys that I know," "tears"). Recurring themes addressed in her work include food, birds, violence, injustice, poverty, and Black Madonna imagery. In her artist statement for 2016's dontsaythatshitoutloud, she describes the impact of finding two men murdered outside her house within a four-month period.
Her work includes the symbolic use of color throughout. Describing beads from one work, she said “If they’re red, they're holding rage and love simultaneously. If they’re white -- they're holding ghosts - the presence of your ancestors ...and they're also holding forgiveness and peace."
ARThouse and Love Front Porch
German also leads the ARThouse and Love Front Porch, a community art institution, in the Homewood neighborhood in Pittsburgh, PA. She started the ARThouse when she needed to create her art on her porch due to a low basement ceiling, and neighborhood children began gathering on her porch to watch her at work. This expanded into a dedicated community art space, which moved twice before moving into its permanent location, a house purchased with donations and proceeds from her art sales, dedicated in December 2015. In 2012, Love Front Porch received a $4,000 grant from the Sankofa Fund of Southwest Pennsylvania, which highlights empowering grass-roots African-American community projects.
Homewood was described as "The Most Dangerous Neighborhood in America" by MSNBC journalist, Rachel Maddow.
Collections
German's work is held in the following permanent collections:
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AR.
American Visionary Art Museum. Baltimore, MD.
The Progressive Art Collection, Cleveland, OH
David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, College Park, MD
Franciscan University, Steubenville, OH
Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
IP Stanback Museum, South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, SC
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Notable Exhibitions
2012: African American Art 1950-Present, Smithsonian Institution and David C. Driskell Center, College Park, MD
2012: Pavel Zoubok Gallery New York, NY.
2013: "Homewood". Pavel Zoubok Gallery. New York, NY.
2013- 2014: "Under the Influence of Finance - Fashion; Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation" Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA.
2014: Pittsburgh Biennial. Pittsburgh, PA.
2015: "Re: Purposed". The Ringling Museum. Sarasota, FL.
2015: "Vanessa German: Bitter Root". Holter Museum of Art. Helena, MT.
2015: "Vanessa German: The Ordinary Sacred". Concept Art Gallery. Pittsburgh, PA.
2016: "Africa Forecast: Fashioning Contemporary Life". Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Atlanta, GA.
2016: "i am armed. i am an army." Pavel Zoubok Gallery. New York, NY.
2016: "i come to do violence to the lie".[27] Solo Exhibit. Matrix new work series. The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Hartford, CT.
2016: "Introspective". August Wilson Center for African American Culture. Pittsburgh, PA.
2017: "de.structive dis.tallation" Everson Museum of Art. Syracuse, NY.
State of The Art: Discovering American Art Now, touring exhibit developed by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas.
2017: "sometimes. we. cannot. be. with. our. bodies." Mattress Factory. Pittsburgh, PA.
Documentary
"Tar Baby Jane". Filmmaker Gregory Scott Williams, Jr., 2010.
Selected Reviews
"Vanessa German." Sculpture magazine. July/ August 2012.
"Cut-and-Paste Culture: The New Collage". ARTnews. December 12. 2013.
"Exhibition Review: Unloaded." afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism. May 22, 2015.
"i take my soul with me everywhere i go". The Georgia Review, September 13, 2016.
"Review: “Africa Forecast” shows how convention inspires Black women’s spirit". ArtsATL, November 11, 2016.
Notable Appearances
"The City is Ours Today" (poem). Inauguration of Pittsburgh mayor, Bill Peduto. January 2014.
"Root" (performed and written spoken word opera) Martha's Vineyard Playhouse, 2011.
Performance poem. Fashion Africana (2004), Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh Music Hall.
Awards
Jacob Lawrence Award, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2017.
Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant, 2015.
Ronald H. Brown Community Leadership award, Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, 2014.
Emerging Artist of the Year, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 2012.
Duquesne Light Leadership Award: Arts, Culture, Recreation, 2007. (honoring German's spoken word poetry)*
CABAN
Kin 137: Red Resonant Earth
I channel in order to evolve
Inspiring synchronicity
I seal the matrix of navigation
With the resonant tone of attunement
I am guided by the power of universal water..
Even as you breathe, telepathic registrations collapse light years of meaning into a small insight.*
*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2017-2018.
The Sacred Tzolk'in
Ajna Chakra (Gamma Plasma)
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