Artist Of The month: Emmanuel Massillon
“Emmanuel Massillon (b. 1998 in Washington D.C.) is an African American conceptual artist who works in different mediums including painting, photography, and sculpture.”
He explores the complex history of race, identity, culture and it’s the relation to people of African descent. Massillon’s upbringing in the inner city of Washington D.C. has a major impact on the messages he spread through is art work. Emmanuel creates art pieces that are conversation starters for sure. “The materials used in his work vary from bullet shells, dirt, found objects and wood which act as a way to express his perception of the world by using materials found in his own environment and cultural history. Emmanuel has influences from art, music, art history and African history.”
Check Out Some of his art work below:
Photo by: @c_whittier
“Dog Food”(Blue Magic #2), 2022
Dog Food, Acrylic Paint, Ink & Jet Ink Transfer on Canvas
72 x 58 in
182.9 x 147.3 cm
“Blue Magic” is The name of a high quality brand of heroin marketed by drug lord Frank Lucas in the 1970’s, which later inspired the film American Gangster ! This drug was the Purist form of heroin at the time and greatly affected many American Black communities during the time of it’s distribution. In most of my paintings I take a different approach to painting than the traditional painter. I have a fascination with unconventional materials that I use to tell a story and to preserve history !
In this painting I used the medium of dog food to represent the skin and bodies of Blacks in America. I felt like using dog food in this work was needed because it was the perfect medium to compare skin color and the act of white Americans feeding blacks to dogs during civil rights protest as a way to establish fear into the minds of Black American’s for years. Another reference for the use of dog food in this painting is the drug “Heroin”. Many people may not know, but heroin in its raw form resembles dog food. So many people have resorted to calling heroin dog food. Both the civil rights movement and the beginning of The drug crisis in Black American neighborhoods were both affecting Black life around the same time which these affects of these two topics can still be felt today ! So by combining these topics into one work I wanted to open conversations about two topics in Black American history that affected Blacks in the past that still effect us today.
This work is currently on view in Emmannuel’s solo exhibition “Wait, Just Hear Me Out” in Paris at @galeriejuliencadet.
– ORIGINAL CAPTION FROM EMMANUEL MASSILLON
Buck 50, 2021
Wood, Sawblade, Epoxy Resin
10 × 8 × 9 in
25.4 × 20.3 × 22.9 cm
I’ve aways been interested in inner-city gang slang and how a lot of the terms used by members in the community stem from catchy references, lived experiences or sometimes reflect the literal sense of the word one is using.
The term “Buck 50” is one of these terms that have interested me ! “Buck 50” is a slang term that refers to a tear inflicted by a cutting instrument (e.g. a knife or a box cutter) in the skin of the cheek from one corner of the mouth toward the lateral ear. This type of attack is most common in street gang violence and is often used specifically to mark the victim with a lifetime facial scar. Also, the resultant linear scar on the cheek from such a wound. They call it “a Buck 50” because the punished individual needs about 150 stiches to patch up the wound.
In this work I placed a saw blade in the face of a wooden African Mask to simulate the act of giving a person a “Buck 50” scar ! By making this work I wanted to share a part of my lived experience with inner city language along with trying to give the viewer the cringe feeling of being cut in the face !
-ORIGINAL CAPTION FROM EMMANUEL MASSILLON
For more art work for Massillon:
@massi____
http://www.emmanuel-massillon.com
@the.cultmag
