race-and-wealth

ARTIST STATEMENT: In the image Blueprint, I juxtapose the image of a housing project on 135th Street and Broadway in Harlem, with the slave ship icon that shows the way African [sic] were stowed in the holds of the ships on the journey from the African continent to the Americas and the Caribbean. The title Blueprint suggests that both of these acts were premeditated. One was to efficiently expedite the shipment of as many bodies that could physically fit into the holds of the ships. The other was to warehouse the descendants of those Africans post-Emancipation in as efficient a manner as possible. The color blue also references the blues, the uniquely American musical idiom created by enslaved African [sic] in response to their social and political position within American society. -- Terry Boddie, 2017
Description
Photographic print by Terry Boddie. The blue print shows two (2) images referencing housing issues among Africans and African Americans. The lower image is a detail view of the conditions for enslaved Africans during the Middle Passage. The illustration of a ship’s cargo hold shows each figure lying confined in rows. The upper half shows a multi-story housing project at 135th Street and Broadway in Harlem. The white paper is visible around the border with some staining on the edges. The work is signed on the bottom. The print is adhered to a Fome-Cor board.