Man, Spirit, and Mask, Willie Cole

Exhibition Label: "Corpus," Apr-2012, Kris Ercums “Embodiment,” Nov-2005, Kate Meyer "Sum of the Parts: Recent Works on Paper," Jun-2001, Stephen Goddard For Cole, the steam iron serves as a symbolic conduit between African and African American identity. The pattern of the steam vents superimposed on the artist’s face recalls ritual scarification and the overall form of the iron resonates with that of a mask. Cole has explained, “I think that when one culture is dominated by another culture, the energy or powers, or gods of the previous culture hide in vehicles in the new cultures.” Exhibition Label: "Conflicting Memories," Oct-2003, Steve Goddard For Cole, the steam iron serves as a symbolic conduit between African and African-American identity. The pattern of the steam vents superimposed on the artist's face recalls ritual scarification and the overall form of the iron resonates with that of a mask. Cole has explained, "I think that when one culture is dominated by another culture, the energy or powers, or gods of the previous culture hide in vehicles in the new cultures." In previous works Cole has often used his collection of old steam irons to scald patterns into paper closing the gap between scarification and domestic work. For the larger-than-life images in Man, Spirit, and Mask he printed the iron shape with lemon juice that was then scalded, turning it brown. This technique allows Cole to retain a literal component of scorching in this printed triptych.