Blown Out Black Mama’s Belly

Description

Lonnie Holley transforms cast-off materials into art with a purpose. This assemblage of a stretched inner tube and scraps of cloth is the artist’s tribute to his mother, who bore many children. The ligatures on the lower portion represent the tied-off umbilical cords of her babies and, by extension, the children of the world. The accreted meanings in Holley’s assemblages urge the viewer to think about the relationship between past and present, the duality of matter and spirit, and the cycle of life and death.