On September 15, 1963, six children’s lives were ended when the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was bombed. As an eleven-year-old, photographer Dawoud Bey saw images of Sarah Collins, the sister of one of the four little girls. The artist credits these photographs as the inspiration for The Birmingham Project.
Fifty years after this tragedy, Bey’s The Birmingham Project recently opened to the public at the Birmingham Museum of Art. In this exhibit, sixteen diptychs portray Birmingham natives the ages of the bombing’s victims when they died alongside community members who are how old they would be if they were still alive.
For me, the most resonant part of the exhibit was the video component. On the left was footage of four familiar and safe spaces – a barbershop, beauty shop, lunch counter and schoolroom. That footage was juxtaposed with a video of the route from the four girls’ neighborhood to the Baptist church, and closes with a panorama of the church’s façade. This video is shot from a car’s backseat, making it a child’s view of the drive.
The power of this exhibit is in the space between the pieces. Each set of artworks is slightly separated, giving the observer the chance to study each individually, then to pull away and contemplate the meaning of the piece as a whole.
For writers, getting caught up describing the minute details of each artwork in an exhibit can be a major sticking point. However, thorough preparation can be the best remedy for a variety of common mistakes in writing about art.
Read the press releases. Galleries and museums hire many employees with backgrounds in art history. Reading their writing can help you shape yours to describe a certain exhibit.
Search for other articles about the artist. Chances are that you’re not the first to write about this exhibit. Find writers you like and pull out passages you like. These can serve as your inspiration.
Read the artist’s biography. His or her personal background can be used as an interpretive lens for the artworks you’re writing about.
Search the exhibit’s catalog. If someone’s written about the totality of the exhibit, summarizing this information can serve as a great introduction to your article.
Be genuine. If you really and truly don’t know what to say, be genuine. Including a sentence like “Many people may be left speechless by this exhibit. Considering its inspirations, this reaction is not surprising.” Be sure to follow up by documenting who or what moved the artist to create.
Ask for help. Hitting roadblocks is natural, but learning from them or asking for help can teach you new skills, and possibly win you a new editor or mentor. The worst thing that will happen is that you stay stuck.
Don’t be afraid of crappy first drafts. Get it on paper. If it sucks, rewrite it. Repeat until it meets your standards. Then turn it in.
Do you have any other tips on writing about art? Leave them in the comments.
Dawoud Bey’s The Birmingham Project will be on display through Dec. 2, 2013 at The Birmingham Museum of Art, 2000 Rev. Abraham Woods, Jr. Blvd. For more information call 205-254-2565 or visit artsbma.org.
When she isn’t writing, Clair McLafferty can usually be found nerding out on programming, cocktails, physics, comics and movies. Some of these interests spill over into her writing at clairmclafferty.com and on to her Twitter feed @see_clair_write.
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Naked Art Gallery is all about making art accessible, which is exactly why we love this place so much and why we’re proud to called Naked Art a sponsor this month.
The folks at Naked Art chose that name because, “we want you to understand and appreciate all of the artists’ work with the ‘naked eye’ without intimidating, ‘highbrow’ hidden meaning.”
Naked Art focuses on functional art and the Birmingham-based gallery has caught the attention of the cable channel Turner South, the national travel guide Eccentric America and Delta Sky magazine. Naked Art Gallery has also been featured in the New York Times, Time Out New York, and on the USA Today Pop Candy blog.
Don’t fret if you don’t live in Birmingham. You can buy funky functional art from Naked Art Gallery online. Here are some items we thought would be great for writers.
Artist Connie Hulsey turned this vintage book in journal! The journal includes blank pages, plus some pages from the Nancy Drew mystery.
This limited edition iPhone 5 cover was designed by Veronique Vanblaere, owner of Naked Art Gallery. Also available for iPhone 4 and 4s and as a wall print.
These earrings by artist Shawna Ross are made from actual newspaper pages, perfect for all you journalistas!
Earrings made by artist Ann Wells from Scrabble pieces. You can even have the earrings made with a word of your choice. Also check out this Scrabble tile bracelet and Scrabble bookmark.
When inspiration hits you’ll be ready to write wherever you are with this pencil necklace by Jeanne Flint.
Birmingham-area writers, join us Saturday, Aug. 3 for Sketches & Scribes. This mid-afternoon mixer will be held at Naked Art Gallery. We’ll enjoy a few snacks, browse the shop, and get inspired by art. In fact, we’re going to have a fun writing challenge at this event, asking attendees to write a poem, a piece of fiction, an essay, or a blog post inspired by a piece of art they saw at Naked Art Gallery. Your work may be featured on this website. Click here to RSVP via Facebook.
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