The Public Art Fund and JCDecaux’s new exhibition considers the act of sitting in a new context.
You never know who will sit next to you at a bus stop. New company arrived for commuters in New York, Boston and Chicago last week, as Adrienne Elise Tarver’s exhibition with the Public Art Fund launched on 300 bus shelters. She Who Sits comprises six new paintings by the Brooklyn-based artist, each depicting a woman sitting. The intriguing and interrogative works explore the intersection of black womanhood, activism and rest, while recontextualising the artistic trope of the seated muse.
The average American does it for more than ten hours a day, but sitting has never been simple. From the sit-in movement of the 1960s – in which students sat at lunch counters to protest segregation – to the feminist metaphor of a ‘seat at the table’, claiming space to sit or taking time to rest is often, perhaps always, linked with power. “I think there’s a misconception that to be an activist is to take dramatic physical action: march, fight, yell”, Tarver tells Mission. “While those are important parts of galvanizing attention towards different causes, it’s easy to overlook the act of just existing in a space that wasn’t made for you and that is actively trying to exclude you.” Many instances of sitting have gained historic fame and significance, but the mundane context of a bus shelter asks: “What about the many moments that aren’t captured?” Tarver encourages those interacting with her work to ask, in the smaller moments of daily life, “what we can do to defy unjust expectations of where we’re allowed to exist.”
“I was looking to tell stories that were personal without the limitations of truth that came with making work about my family, myself, or famous figures,” Tarver says.
It is the subject of these paintings, as well as their placement, which defies clear boundaries. Since finding an unattributed photo in a thrift store ten years ago, Tarver has constructed and painted her muse, Vera Otis. A nod to the Latin word for truth, ‘veritas’, Vera is an amalgamation of inspirations: iconic black actresses – such as Dorothy Dandridge and Eartha Kitt – merge with the personal and the fictional. “I was looking to tell stories that were personal without the limitations of truth that came with making work about my family, myself, or famous figures,” Tarver says.
It is not just Otis herself, but where Tarver depicts her, that is significant in Tarver’s work. Her previous exhibition, Where the Waters Go, portrayed her muse in an aspirational Hollywood house that also abutted a plantation. Now, Otis is situated in her personal space, but displayed on bus shelters: “The bus stop is not dramatic, it’s meant for mundane moments in between life events. Similarly, the moments in these paintings are not dramatic, yet the existence of these women is steeped in the deep emotional toll and mental labor of navigating the ‘double consciousness’”.
“The bus stop is not dramatic, it’s meant for mundane moments in between life events. Similarly, the moments in these paintings are not dramatic, yet the existence of these women is steeped in the deep emotional toll and mental labor of navigating the ‘double consciousness”.
‘Double consciousness’ is a persistent theme in Tarver’s work – from her research process to her previous exhibitions. Coined by American sociologist W.E.B Du Bois, the term was initially used to explain the sensation experienced by African-Americans whose personal identity conflicted with the oppressive consciousness thrust upon them by a white society. The bus stops presenting She Who Sits, Tarver says, “give the private moments in these paintings a public stage, giving contrast between private agency and public scrutiny.”
A woman lounging on a yellow armchair, surrounded by a haze of pink and orange hues, now presides over a gray bus shelter in downtown NYC. The gaze of Tarver’s subject – many of the works make eye contact with the viewer – distorts the history of the muse as potentially powerless: “Artists have been painting seated figures, whether patrons or muses, for ages. Moving this trope outdoors to a public space, and on bus shelters, added the complexity of this dual existence in a more pronounced way.”
This theme extends to Tarver’s extensive research which, for this project, encompassed trawling the digital archives of Ebony and Jet magazines, as well as watching films and TV interviews of early twentieth century actresses. “Seeing a skin-bleaching advertisement, next to a Black Panther article, next to a tour of a Hollywood actress’s home gives a more holistic view into the complicated and nuanced world that black life has always been. It’s not that it was showing me something that I didn’t know through my own experience, but seeing these magazines as an archive of a broader picture was useful”.
The collision of contexts behind, within and surrounding the paintings not only allows different onlookers to approach the works from different angles, but is central to Tarver’s artistry: “I find that overlapping personal experience, historical research, and imagination is very generative for me in the studio.”
Despite the complex histories and creation behind these works, they are also profoundly simple. They are a moment of beauty and pause in a harried commuter’s day. Whilst those viewing Tarver’s work in a gallery might come to it with a knowledge of the artist’s work, those waiting for a bus don’t need to know the context of the piece. For Tarver, “They just need to sit with it, quite literally. It’s about that simple act. I hope that people sit with these women and appreciate the parallels in their lives at that moment.”
All imagery courtesy of the artist.
