A Haunting Between Us
Clark Atlanta University Museum
September 10-December 13, 2024
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| Sovereign (how to pull a spear from our throat), La Vaughn Belle, 2023 |
The earth whispers what we have forgotten. The sound may be faint, but if we are fully tuned in we will notice the soil, the water, and the wind coalesce to utter a timeless truth attempting to reach out to us. Often these collective memories are quite painful and they haunt us during our waking hours. La Vaughn Belle hears these whispers on St. Croix, the island she calls home. As she exits the buildings, walks the streets, and feels the hot sun on her face, she is struck by the reality of the forced labor camps that once covered the terrain for centuries under Danish colonialism in theVirgin Islands (1672-1917) and the exploitation of a people that continues to this very day.
These histories do not die, they live on within us and around us simultaneously. Belle’s unique gift is that she not only senses the pain of this haunting, she also registers the thunderous response of the people to these injustices–rebellion. The pieces in this exhibition come primarily from two series, Swarm and Cuts and Burns; both surrounding a striking sculpture aptly titled Sovereign (how to pull a spear from our throat). Pulling from archives and oral histories, Belle reconstructs how the people of St. Croix defended their sovereignty by rising from the watery depths shooting arrows at invaders, wielding machetes against enslavers, and burning down plantations.
Belle’s artwork fashions a narrative that you won’t find in the history books or the archives because these methods fail to capture the spirit of resistance that accompanies the viciousness of colonial encounters. Power does not allow for that. Instead, it works persistently, diligently, and clandestinely to frame history for its own purposes. Belle reminds us, however, that a more complex story haunts us and we cannot ignore it. She implores us to learn from these hauntings, to remember, and to use the tools at our disposal, the tools of rebellion, to tell our own stories of history and transformation.
