Lorna Simpson: ‘Who knew coronavirus would bring about a political change?’ New York artist living in the moment
- Simpson continues to create despite being away from her studio in Brooklyn, and in Hong Kong show she explores painting, a medium to which she is still new
- She highlights her art’s universality despite its past rejection by some for having an African-American perspective, and expects it to connect with Hongkongers
“As an artist, I feel the emotional tenor of what it means to be alive right now, and man, is it a moment to be alive,” says artist Lorna Simpson.
“What’s also interesting about this moment in lockdown,” she says of the social isolation brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, “is that you don’t have the machine of economies at work. People don’t have to rush towards their jobs and responsibilities in the same way, and are given a moment to think and reflect.”
“The driving force of capitalism is a distraction from real issues, keeping everyone in their routines. Who knew corona would bring about a political change?”
She is speaking from Los Angeles, away from her studio and home in Brooklyn, New York, and ahead of her first solo exhibition in China at the Hauser & Wirth gallery in Hong Kong.
Simpson’s artistic practice – much like the Black Lives Matter movement, and indeed any movement that advocates for basic human rights – has political and cultural implications that have always been relevant but resonates today more than ever.
The world that we live in, the way that we communicate, and the way we can learn from each other is by understanding and being open to different stories
Entitled “Special Characters”, her newly opened Hong Kong show features signature collages alongside new works from her Special Characters series as well as paintings – a medium she started exploring more recently.
Layered images sourced from old issues of Ebony and Jet magazines (publications intended for African-American audiences), sometimes combined with text, form the foundation of her work. Viewers can see embedded text even in her paintings if they look closely.
Simpson explains her subconscious plays a significant role in her creative process, which she characterises as one of “free association”, and results in the often absurd or surreal collages she has become renowned for.
When combing through her selection of Ebony and Jet magazines, many of which are from the 1960s and ’70s, she usually selects images of women that strike her as most absurd, then takes them out of their context and places them in one of her work. In the Nebulae (2019) series, busts of women are placed atop houses.
She incorporates images of natural phenomena in figurative paintings, such as Then Comes Thunder (2019). The surrealist aesthetic is also seen in Bright (2020) and Most Relevant (2020) from the Special Characters series, in which she superimposes three or four different faces. The effect of this is to apply multiple features – three eyes and two mouths, for instance – to what appears to be a single face.
Murmur (2019) is inspired by the Arctic landscape (ice is a recurring motif in her work), and highlights the ephemeral nature of icebergs. Simpson likens the harsh climate it portrays to that of the Americas.
The collages on view in “Special Characters” address the representation of African-Americans throughout history – a history fraught with prejudice, something Simpson has had to overcome in her career.
As an artist in the 1990s she encountered antagonism from people sending back catalogues of her work, claiming it isn’t photography or real art – a reaction she was “shocked to see”. Bomb threats were made to an institution showing her work, because people didn’t like its African-American narrative.
“It never occurred to me to stop doing what I’m doing, I had to keep proceeding and making work,” Simpson says.
She countered the lack of diversity in the art world – even now representation is a pressing issue – by working with a diverse group of younger writers and curators who “gave [me] enough space to speak about my work in an interesting way”.
“The world that we live in, the way that we communicate, and the way we can learn from each other is by understanding and being open to different stories. Coming to hear, understand, and experience what others have experienced is just part of being human,” says Simpson.
For all that it has been challenged for having an African-American perspective, her art has universal appeal – a point Simpson made forcefully during a talk at the Hauser & Wirth London gallery in 2018.
Responding to a question about how her work is received in different countries, she said: “I have the arrogance to think that being African-American, my s**t can be very universal, and in that arrogance, I’m forcing everyone else to get on the same page.”
“How is it that I can sit through 10 years of art school, and see Kiki Smith’s work as being universal, but mine isn’t?” she added, referring to a white American artist known, like Simpson, for her work with the bodily form.
With “Special Characters”, which opened on June 16, the artist welcomes the chance to start a dialogue with her audience in Hong Kong. She says: “I think it’s such an opportunity to be in conversation with a different place and culture. I feel very fortunate to be have the opportunity for my work to travel, and that there are audiences that get to see and experience it – that’s an amazing thing.”
Special Characters, until September 30, Hauser & Wirth, 15/F and 16F, 80 Queen’s Road Central. By appointment. Inquiries: 3958 7188
