Divinity
- On View
- Visual Arts Gallery
- Museum Maps
- Objects in this Location
- Exhibition
- Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
- Photograph by
- Flash, Lola, American, born 1959
- Subject of
- Flash, Lola, American, born 1959
- Date
- 2020
- Medium
- ink on paper
- Dimensions
- H x W (sheet): 36 × 24 in. (91.4 × 61 cm)
- H x W (image): 33 3/4 × 22 9/16 in. (85.7 × 57.3 cm)
- Caption
- Throughout the self-portrait series syzygy, the vision, photographer Lola Flash (they/them) dons a space helmet, an orange prison uniform, and handcuffs. “Heavy on my mind is America’s mass incarceration and the question of breaking free,” Flash writes of the series, which also reflects their personal experiences with the police. Flash was arrested in 2008 “for walking while Black.” Their teaching license was suspended, leaving them unemployed for six months. Although syzygy, the vision began as a response to Afrofuturism, it expanded with the COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd’s killing to include themes of mass incarceration and Black Lives Matter. Like much of Flash’s work, the images confront issues of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and ageism.
- Description
- An inkjet print self-portrait depicting the photographer, Lola Flash, standing in the middle of an up-ended rowboat, it's interior painted a bright blue. The rowboat stands on its end on a cement pavement against a red brick and black wood wall. Flash wears a bright orange prison uniform and a futuristic white helmet with a translucent blue visor over their face. Their hands are held in front of them in a prayer position and they wear a heavily beaded orange and white band with cowrie shell ornamentation on each wrist. There are no marks or inscriptions, front or back.
- Portfolio/Series
- syzygy, the vision series
- Classification
- Photographs and Still Images
- Movement
- Afrofuturism
- Type
- portraits
- inkjet prints
- Topic
- Art
- Black geographies
- Freedom
- Identity
- LGBTQ
- Photography
- Prayer
- Prisons
- Race discrimination
- Spirituality
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, purchased through the American Women's History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative
- Object number
- 2021.57.6
- Restrictions & Rights
- © Lola Flash
- Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.