Could this be any truer!?! Jesus, I think I just fell in love with Hank Willis Thomas, or rather his artwork. Which is incredible and soo up my alley.
I need to write something about this guy.
ok, so maybe I will now, just a little:
My favorite series of his is The B(r)anded series, which obviously explores the detrimental effects of advertising. He adds a deeper twist in that he pinpoints the inherent racism in so much of the ads we ingest daily, minute by minute.
Hank writes, "Much of the work focuses on the use of the African American male body in advertisements. I am interested in the connection between this body type and the cotton and slave trade industries that brought this country so much wealth. In 'NBA Trade' I use the NBA logo and a slave auction poster to draw a comparison between the way the black male body was traded then (i.e. on the slave auction block) and now (disproportionately popular in the popular sports drafts)."
uuuhhh genius. And what makes it so genius is that any slightly sociologically aware individual could pick up on the parallel on their own, but Hank does so with a combined shot to the heart and mind using a single, meaning-packed image. It's harder than it looks and I'm now going to follow this guy's work more closely. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite pieces from The B(r)anded series:
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