“Black Bodies Making Form” exhibit

On Friday, Sept. 27 the ETSU Tipton, Slocumb Galleries and Tennessee Craft presented their inaugural crafting exhibition, “Black Bodies Making Form.” This exhibition took place in Ball Hall at ETSU and expressed Black culture and trauma through different forms of art.    

The “Black Bodies Making Form” exhibition was in celebration of 100 years of Black craft history in Tennessee. Karlota Contreas-Koterbay, director of Slocum Galleries at ETSU, and Karen Sullivan, director of development co-curated this event, which showcased different artists locally and different artists around Tennessee followed by a panel with different guest speakers.

Photo of the Black Bodies Making Form exhibit. (Contributed/Slocumb Galleries)

“For this exhibition, we wanted to have a focus and the semi-focus was Black life and Black bodies,” said Koterbay. “We wanted to present empowered images of how the Black artists see themselves and how they want to be seen.” 

Sullivan and Koterbay wanted this exhibition to be about self-representation, along with Black struggles and trauma. Different artists such as Samuel Dunson, Althea Murphy-Price, Roger Smith and many others showcased their artwork that represented black culture in ways that expressed hair, quilts, masks, dolls and numerous other artworks.  

Akintayo Akintobi, a transfer graduate student at ETSU, is one of the youngest local artists to participate in the exhibition. The art that he presented was a painted wooden chair that represented the culture of his homeland Nigeria and his life in Tennessee. The overall goal was to combine these two lifestyles and cultures together which gave Akintobi a nostalgic feeling and represented the togetherness these cultures have.  

“I want people to know that even though people see cultures differently, there is still a bridge between these two cultures,” said Akintobi. “They might not be the same, but there is still a bridge where the two exist together and there can be an understanding between these people and cultures and I believe there is always a common ground.” 

The exhibit is up till Oct. 7, Slocumb will highlight different diverse topics that will be up in the next few weeks. From art made out of peach pits to art made of masking tape, there are stories and impactful statements all around the exhibit. This is the first year that Slocumb Galleries has presented a show such as this, but it will not be the last. The plan is to take this show around different institutions, schools, galleries and more over the next four years and teach people about the African American culture.

Photo of the Black Bodies Making Form exhibit. (Contributed/Slocumb Galleries)

“We wanted to show the different diversity of media,” said Koterbay. “We’re using craft, in a way, as a platform to create this dialogue and to create this way of history and voices in the Black community.”