Untitled 1980 - 1987

Editor: This compelling piece is an Untitled mixed-media assemblage by Hawkins Bolden, created between 1980 and 1987. It features found objects like metal, giving it a weathered and somewhat eerie quality. How would you interpret the social or cultural context of such a work, using discarded materials? Curator: Well, let's consider the artist's background. Bolden was a self-taught artist living in rural Alabama. His work is often categorized as outsider art. His creative activity emerged from necessity, as a means to navigate his visual impairment, and an innate need to create objects with symbolic power. Editor: So the use of found objects wasn’t just aesthetic, but perhaps born of resourcefulness or even social commentary? Curator: Precisely. Consider the historical context. During the time this piece was created, what might discarded metal represent in the rural South? It speaks to poverty, perhaps, or the remnants of industry and labor. Editor: The metal pieces look like repurposed shovels. They give off the look of masks almost… Curator: Interesting. What does that suggest to you? How might masks function within the social and political sphere? Are they protection, performance, or protest? In African diasporic art, masking can represent many things, sometimes simultaneously. Editor: So it's not just about the visual, but the layers of meaning accumulated through its history, its maker, and its possible function. I guess I wasn't considering all the layers here. Curator: Art invites these questions and dialogues. And an artwork like this invites considerations around materiality, reuse, access, as well as what one deems art "worthy" of preservation. Editor: Thank you; I definitely see this piece in a new light. It makes me think about the unseen labor behind it.