Noel W. Anderson
Noel W. Anderson
Workspace Program Resident 2018
Paper is the ground.
I entered my residency at Dieu Donné interested in playing with paper but, more theoretically, to also study and question the “truth” of photographic and archived materials. As photographs and archives are foundational, perhaps I could materially deploy “paper-as-ground”, to jostle our faith in archived images? My Master Collaborator, Amy Jacobs, could not wait. “Shake the ground!” was our command.
Beginning with a forced marriage between two processes—papermaking and silkscreen printmaking— we sought to translate a series of photographs into sheets of paper. Directive: Like paper, the image must be the ground. Working on a body of work called “Blak Origin Moment”—exploring the relationship between black identity and “the archive”—images deployed for my residency, were from a growing personal archive of photographs relating to African American experience: Jesse Jackson, MLK Jr.’s hand, a police line-up, etc.
After laboriously couching light blue fields of wet pulp, photographically exposed screens were laid on-top, followed by gently massaging dark-blue pulp through the screen. “Don’t pull it up yet,” we said, and continued, “Did we count the 90 seconds? Now let’s rub another layer of pulp through. Scrape-off the remaining pulp. Put it in “that” bucket. We can reuse. Ok now slowly remove the screen.” The internal directives of a collaboration. Staring down at the new sheet of paper, we exclaimed, “oh hell yes!”
Through “meticulous-experimentation”, we were immersed in the medium; fully engaged in the possibilities of image—manipulation: more pulp here, less there; exploring the subtleties of blues. As a result, Amy and I were able to develop a series of papered-photographs exploring representations as foundations for meaning: The papered-image is the ground.
—Noel W. Anderson, 2018
Noel W Anderson’s imagery is captured from both archival and contemporary sources in African American history. These images are surreal and manipulated—twisting and contorting human forms from portraits of O.J. Simpson and policemen to prisoners forced alongside a penitentiary fence. Each piece references the increasing racial tension in the United States and prompts the viewer to consider the social responsibility that arises amidst institutionalized violence.
To create these works, Anderson first pulled color base sheets from both cotton and abaca pulp. To transfer his imagery, Anderson exposed film positives of these photographs to various silkscreens. Linen pulp paint was then carefully pushed through each screen’s mesh on to the wet paper pulp.
In the Studio
About the Artist
Noel W Anderson (b. Louisville, KY) received an MFA from Indiana University in Printmaking, and an MFA from Yale University in Sculpture. He is also Area Head of Printmaking in NYU’s Steinhardt Department of Art and Art Professions.
Anderson utilizes print-media and arts-based-research to explore philosophical inquiry methodologies. He primarily focuses on the mediation of socially constructed images on identity formation as it relates to black masculinity and celebrity. In 2018, Noel was awarded the NYFA artist fellowship grant and the prestigious Jerome Prize. His solo exhibition Blak Origin Moment debuted at the Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati) in February 2017 and travelled to the Hunter Museum of American Art in October 2019. His first monograph, Blak Origin Moment, was also recently published. (Source: Artist’s website)
For more information, please visit their website: https://www.nwastudios.com/