By Kerry Ingram
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The silenced voices of women, people of color, and other marginalized individuals were celebrated at the Waller Gallery’s “Drapetomania: A Strong Urge to Escape” exhibition last Saturday, held in residential Baltimore.
The exhibit, which was put together by Baltimore-raised artist Nia Hampton, showcased photographic and video documentation of Afro-Latino communities and the social movements held by each. The show’s inspiration came from Hampton’s own travels to these communities, in which she discovered the ways in which color and gender are used to divide.
“Through traveling in South America, I was exposed to so much,” Hampton said. “The women’s movements there were so powerful. That’s sort of where I learned what feminism even was.”
Upon entering the exhibit, viewers were greeted with pictures of women in South America, all of varying looks and auras. A video played on one wall, made up of interview clips and narrations made by Hampton while meeting different women abroad. The diversity of women and traveling were clear highlights in the first room of the exhibit, something that Hampton spoke towards.
“I was obsessed with watching movies with subtitles when I was growing up,” Hampton said. “And my dad was from the Bronx. When he passed, I was, in a way, ‘looking for him.’ I felt a need to figure out who I was through who he was. A mixture of those things led to me wanting to study abroad, and it all snowballed from there.”
“After being able to go to different communities, I learned how much color can play a part in it,” Hampton added. “I grew up in a time when reggaetone and Spanish music was popular, but it was traveling that showed me being a Latin American woman isn’t just being like J Lo.”
The exhibition’s second room held even more depth, with altars set up to honor those lives of marginalized people who were lost through injustice. The lives of women were at the forefront, although members of the transgender community and men of color were also represented.
Visitors were encouraged to write messages of support on gold flecked paper, which they could add to the art showcase. Messages like “R.I.H. Beautiful Queens” and “You inspire me to ensure your deaths were not in vain” were just some of the words left on display by the exhibition’s viewers.
Two walls were dedicated to the display of news articles, each one announcing the death of a woman killed by a loved one.
The list of mentioned names seemed endless: Nokuthula Thase was a 28-year-old fatally shot by her boyfriend after turning down his marriage proposal; Jessica Hampton was a 25-year-old mother fatally stabbed by her ex-boyfriend in Chicago after a domestic dispute; Erica Gould was a 30-year-old mother killed in her Salisbury home by her husband.
Each news article highlighted in yellow the names of the victims and their outcomes and prompted visitors to write messages with the hashtags “Say Her Name” to share on the walls.
The name of the exhibit, “Drapetomania”, holds just as much underlying meaning as the artwork itself. The term was once used as a medical diagnosis to explain why enslaved Africans ran away from plantations. Hampton’s usage of the word connects to her own encounter of fleet upon moving to Brazil.
The exhibition’s content wasn’t the only significant aspect of the showcase – “Drapetomania” was Hampton’s first solo artist showcase, as well as the Waller Gallery’s first art exhibition.
“This was a huge opening for us,” said Joy Davis, the gallery’s curator. “Hampton had work that was readily available and that spoke to our overall thesis we wanted to present. Through this exhibit, you’re getting a clear view of post-colonialism, traveling through the lens of a black woman, and just the overall dynamics of living in a world of oppressive means.”
Davis shared how the Waller Gallery’s main focus is to promote the art of people of color, especially those from the Baltimore area.
Having been raised in Maryland, Davis spent her grad school days at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where she was able to see art as a corporation. She decided to bring art back to Baltimore, with less of a business emphasis that New York held, and more of a meaningful presentation of expression.
Visitors looked on at Hampton’s work in silence, each taking the time to take in every aspect of her work before expressing their admiration of the exhibit.
“This was so powerful to see,” said Philip Murdel, one of the gallery’s attendees and a Baltimore local. “[The main message here is] to spread love. This really inspired me to advocate for change.”
Hampton shared how her main goal of her first exhibit is to allow for those voices lost to finally be heard.
“I originally began with a blog and people loved my photos,” Hampton said. “But I realized that there were people who weren’t online, and therefore weren’t seeing my artwork or the messages behind them, so I decided to bring them to galleries. I want people to be able to look at blackness and gender and see that we’re more alike than we are different. We need to bridge the gap between the worlds.”
“Drapetomania” will continue to be showcased at the Waller Gallery until May 26.