Hank Willis Thomas

For Hank Wilis Thomas, art is a means to visualise a message. Moving through sculpture, photography, film and installation, he uses an archive-led approach largely inspired by his mother, photographer and art historian Deborah Willis. He often appropriates pre-existing ephemera from sport and popular culture into his work. Verve (2017) and Visa (2017) for example, rework football jerseys and prison uniforms into quilts, recalling both Fauve expressionist Henri Matisse and the embroidered appliqué of traditional Ghanaian Asafo flags. As a founder of the artist-run collective For Freedoms, Thomas creates monuments and billboards which reshape the sphere of public art. He investigates the intersections of race, identity and consumerism - using his art to dream for progress.

This hope for progress is balanced with the reality of oppression, especially in the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade. Branded (2003) shows Black bodies with scars in the shape of the emblematic Nike tick. The scars, digitally imposed to disconcertingly real effect, reference the dehumanising branding of bodies during slavery. By recontextualising this vicious act, Thomas signals the way today’s corporations commodify Blackness to generate profit. Similarly, Cotton Bowl (2011) shows a football player facing off against another man, also crouched, picking cotton. Layering connections between history and its images, Thomas reminds audiences that the past is a site to learn from and that — when working collectively — we can use love to secure a hopeful future.