Sonya Clark

“Each brick in Edifice and Mortar is stamped with a maker’s mark akin to ancient Roman crescent-shaped brick stamps but altered to resemble a Black Power Afro [with] the Italian word for slave, schiavo. The stamp acknowledges slavery’s legacy [and] is meant to make visible the invisible labor of our forebears and remind us the exploitation continues in innumerable ways…If slavery becomes invisible to us it will lurk in the shadows and continue to breed injustice.” –Sonya Clark

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU AS AN ARTIST?

I like to think I’m in dialogue with those unknown forebears who manipulated materials into quotidian objects. I rely on substance, form, and methods of making to carry the weight of my queries and thoughts. Simple silent objects possess a subversive monumentality. What fades to the background also looms in the subconscious. Like a shell held to the ear, these things are full of the language of the ocean. I am motivated to tap into the depths of this kind of language.

ARE THERE DETAILS ABOUT IN THE WORK THAT YOU’D ESPECIALLY LIKE AUDIENCES TO PAY ATTENTION TO?

Chattel slavery is culturally entrenched in so many insidious ways. I was in Italy investigating parallels between Richmond and Rome. I routinely said hello and goodbye to people daily with a casual ciao. I studied ancient Roman bricks made by enslaved people and compared them to Virginian bricks made by enslaved people. One day, an Italian friend told me about the etymology of ciao and I discovered I had essentially been saying, “I am your slave.”
 

WHAT DOES THE WORD DECLARATION MEAN TO YOU, IN RELATION TO YOUR WORK?

When I think of a declaration, I like to consider where it takes place. Is it on a piece of paper? Is it housed in a structure or a monument? Or does it live in the collective memory? Do the words live in the body? Where are those words felt? Do they press into the mind? Do the words weigh in the heart? Can you feel the declaration in your hands? Do you feel it in your gait? Can you dance it? Sing it? Does it get lodged in your throat? Or does the declaration exist outside your grasp because it was never meant for you? Can you breathe it in and own it nonetheless. Can you press yourself into its words and make your mark to shape it into a better version of itself?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE SHOWING YOUR WORK AT THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY?

Richmond’s story is not just a southern story. It is not even just an American story. It is a global story. Given what is happening in this nation as our troubled democracy is undermined, tested, and tried, I can think of no better time to exhibit this work in this location at this moment in history.

DO YOU BELIEVE ART HAS SOCIALLY TRANSFORMATIVE POWER?

My twitter handle reads “Child of Caribbean immigrants, professor/artist, thinking thru materials, deep belief in art’s ability to affect change.” So, yes, I believe art can transform. That is the root of its power. Rebecca Solnit in her article Easy Chair: Occupied Territory, wrote: “There are two kinds of borders: those that limit where we can go and those that limit what people can do to us.” The power and privilege of artists is the access we have to move across borders that define cultures, disciplines, class, and nations. We create imagery that burrows into the psyche. Not only is there is power in this privilege, there is responsibility.