Monterey Peninsula artist Germain Hatcher will exhibit artistic works based on a collection of interviews conducted with formerly enslaved Americans nearly a century ago.
The exhibition is on display through June 26 at Luna Gallery and Eco Art Studio, 107 B The Alameda in San Juan Bautista. An artist talk will be held in honor of Juneteenth at 4pm June 20.
The works, excerpted from Hatcher’s ongoing series “Beyond Bullwhip Days,” seek to bring renewed attention to the lives, voices and experiences preserved in one of the nation’s most significant oral history collections.
Hatcher’s collection is rooted in “Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember,” a book edited by James Mellon that compiles interviews conducted between 1936 and 1938 with formerly enslaved people across the U.S., says a press release from Luna Gallery. The interviews were done as part of the federal Works Progress Administration.
The project included more than 2,000 interviews and hundreds of photographs documenting the lives and memories of people who survived slavery.
“Some of these stories are difficult and I don’t think the audience that sees this show needs to be comfortable with these stories, but there is an imminent necessity that we, as Americans, come to collectively respect the struggle of these individuals,” Hatcher said.
Hatcher said the collection inspired her to reconnect the photographed subjects with their stories and identities through art.
“My goal was reuniting the subjects with their stories and their names in a way that would show their resilience, beauty and humanity,” she said in a statement.
The resulting series combines drawing, painting and collage, in graphite, watercolor, wax-based paint and other media, says the press release. Hatcher describes each piece as a stepping stone toward a larger, future work based on the WPA archives.
While her work spans many subjects and styles, Hatcher said storytelling remains at the heart of her artistic practice.
“The artist finds the greatest inspiration in telling people’s stories in her work,” her biography states.
The exhibition at Luna Gallery is funded by a grant from the San Benito County Arts Council.
