Spring 2021 exhibitions and events

deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum is pleased to announce three new exhibitions. Large-scale, immersive works by textile artist Sonya Clark will be on view in Sonya Clark: Heavenly Bound, which Clark developed specially for deCordova, and Sonya Clark: Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know, organized by the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. Concurrent with both Sonya Clark presentations, the collection-based exhibition What We Do in the Shadows examines the dynamics of visibility and marginalization in political activism.    

Sonya Clark: Heavenly Bound   
A Professor at Amherst College and winner of the 2020 deCordova Rappaport Prize, Sonya Clark draws on everyday materials to investigate how our assignment of meaning to objects reflects our personal and collective attitudes. For decades, Clark has sustained her line of inquiry into the Black experience in the United States, often using cultural symbols to grapple with the relationships between history, social justice, institutional racism, and racial inequality. In Heavenly Bound, large-scale textile installations composed of hair, cloth cyanotypes, and a parachute honor the perilous journey of self-emancipated Black Americans who navigated the Underground Railroad by way of the Big Dipper, North Star, and improvised maps.  

Sonya Clark: Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know 
Organized by the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia following Clark’s residency there, Sonya Clark: Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know has been reformatted in collaboration with the artist for deCordova’s galleries to examine more closely New England’s implication in enslavement and abolition as well as ongoing systemic racism. Through large-scale textile pieces, interactive experiences, and performance, this exhibition proposes a shift in the national discussion around race and remembrance. The Confederate Flag of Truce was a simple dishcloth employed as the South’s flag of surrender at the end of the Civil War in 1865. Yet, as Clark shows, propaganda continues to make the more familiar Confederate Battle Flag into the enduring symbol of this history. Clark’s works explore the color, texture, and ideology of the Truce Flag, offering avenues for reevaluating foundational American narratives of truce and surrender.   

What We Do in the Shadows   
The concurrent collection-based group exhibition, What We Do in the Shadows, draws from deCordova’s holdings in photography and works on paper. The artworks expose injustices against individuals, communities, and the environment, centering advocates and activists who fight for equality and find empowerment amid darkness. Shadows lurk all around us, marking time and place. Literally and figuratively, shade provides space for people to flourish in secret and cover for malicious activities. Highlighting deCordova’s holdings of art associated with postwar countercultures in the United States, this exhibition looks across the Museum’s legacy of collecting works that push against entrenched social norms, uplift disempowered people, and disseminate messages of peace and equity. Some of the artists on view include Leonard Baskin, Laura McPhee, Barbara Norfleet, Ben Shahn, and John Wilson. What We Do in the Shadows is organized by Elizabeth Upenieks, Curatorial Assistant. 
 

Events

Weaving in the Gallery
Every Friday, April 16–September 10, 12–1pm

Virtual curator talk: “What We Do in The Shadows”
Thursday, April 22, 12–1pm

Cronin Virtual Lecture: Paul J. Farber 
Wednesday, May 5, 6:30–7:30pm

Lunchtime conversation: Final Exposure with Lou Jones
Thursday, May 13, 12–1pm

Black Feminism Part 1: Juneteenth Party
Saturday, June 19, 1–5pm

Barbara Krauthamer + Deborah Willis: “Emancipation Photography”
Saturday, May 19, 12–1pm

Support  
Sonya Clark: Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Amherst College, Agnes Gund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Goya Contemporary Gallery & Goya-Girl Press, Rotasa Fund, the John Meyerhoff & Lenel Srochi-Meyerhoff Fund at the Baltimore Community Foundation, and Judith S. Weisman. Additional support for deCordova’s presentations of Sonya Clark: Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know and Sonya Clark: Heavenly Bound comes from the Coby Foundation, Ltd., the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, the Meredyth Hyatt Moses Fund, the Nathaniel Saltonstall Arts Fund, and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation. Both exhibitions at deCordova are aligned with the Feminist Art Coalition and have been organized by Sam Adams, Curatorial Fellow.