Bang 1994

Curator: Kerry James Marshall painted this acrylic and mixed media piece titled "Bang" in 1994. What's grabbing your attention here? Editor: The immediate contrast between the saccharine, almost naive, pastel-tinged celebration imagery and the stark silhouettes of the figures gives me pause. It's unsettling. Curator: Indeed. That disjunction is powerful. Consider the setting – a backyard, a quintessential symbol of suburban, middle-class America. The grill, the white picket fence – these are loaded symbols of the American Dream. Yet, these black silhouettes exist within it, creating a complicated dialogue with the notion of belonging. Editor: The symbolism feels dense. The children's dark skin almost blends with the darkness of a grill and contrasts strongly with the crisp white houses and flag. It forces a re-evaluation of who is welcomed into that "American Dream". Notice too the celebratory banners that read, "Happy July 4, We Are One, Bang". What kind of unity is being alluded to here? Is it real or performative? Curator: Precisely. The banners themselves are interesting. The celebratory phrases juxtaposed against the shadowy figures can evoke different interpretations of what "We Are One" really means for Black Americans during Independence Day celebrations. The word “Bang” is particularly charged, reminding us how July 4th sounds to communities that regularly experience violence and policing. It is quite an interesting image! Editor: The image feels so relevant, and sadly so, even three decades after it was painted. There's something about Marshall’s approach to familiar iconography that unveils a more challenging reality. How race relations intersect with historical American narrative is front and center. Curator: This juxtaposition between celebratory imagery and stark figures challenges us to question easy narratives, the complexities inherent within notions of belonging and exclusion, memory, and national identity. Marshall gives powerful symbols through which cultural conversations happen. Editor: This painting provides us a great example of what happens when the American Dream gets a more sobering reality check.