Label Text
Donté K. Hayes has an interest in the African diasporic experience, but instead of thinking about generational trauma, he prefers to focus on the ways "generational power" makes people resilient. "It's like tapping into an ancestral wavelength," he explains. Wavelength is one of 27 works made during the artist's residency at the Bemis Center in Omaha, Nebraska. This piece was inspired by a Ghanian pot discovered during his research of African art held by the Stanley Museum of Art. The waves found in Hayes' work build on the one in the Ghanian pot, like a riff or a harmony. They are intended to evoke the trans-Atlantic passage that brought both Ghanian pots and the artist's ancestors from West Africa to the Americas.
DimensionsOverall: 17 × 15 × 12 in. (43.2 × 38.1 × 30.5 cm)
Accession Number 2022.7
Classificationsceramic
SignedDonté K. Hayes '21 (bottom edge, in red)
ProvenanceArtist; (Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami); Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 2022]
Images (4)
