Stephon Senegal
Untitled, (Black Ink on White Paper), 2020
Serigraph (Silkscreen)
Acrylic Ink on Canson Cold Press Paper
18x24 inches
Edition of 25

“As part of my art practice, I install public art in marginalized communities of color. In this work, the residents are my audience. I often record my experiences in these communities with sketches and photographs. This series of prints represents images from those places. The compositions are abstractions. They are silhouettes. I choose the silhouette because its suggests that the light source is coming from behind or within the object. Conceptually I wanted to position the places where my people live and thrive as something unspoken and yet present. The details of a backlit subject are hidden. In the same way, the histories and depth of the Black and Brown have been hidden and obscured. The language in the composition, taken from essays by famous writers of color, is also intentionally obscured. I want the audience to understand the text as a mark in the same context as the objects. I do work in these communities because they have been marked by the trauma of purposeful neglect and the exportation of a European American bias. These marks and prints are part of my conversation with my diaspora.” – Stephon Senegal