I Can't Breathe (Water Table)

Object Details

Date
2018
Created by
Torkwase Dyson, American, born 1973
Subject of
Henry Box Brown, American, 1815 - 1897
Caption
Torkwase Dyson’s work is informed by geometry, architecture, and abstraction. She is known for creating art that explores how people of color have, and continue to negotiate, spatial order. I Can’t Breathe refers to the phrase desperately uttered 11 times by Eric Garner while held in a prohibited chokehold by police officer Daniel Pantaleo until Garner fell unconscious and eventually died. Even though the incident was captured on video and officially deemed a homicide, Pantaleo was not indicted.
Part of Dyson’s Water Table series, I Can’t Breathe was exhibited in her 2018 solo exhibition, Dear Henry. The exhibition was created as a visually symbolic letter/homage to Henry “Box” Brown, an enslaved African American who escaped to freedom by shipping himself to Philadelphia in 1849.
Description
An acrylic painting on cotton canvas with a grey background. Centrally depicted three distinct shapes created with various brushstrokes. On each side of the canvas is a bright cloudy white cube. Bright and wide brushstrokes of red and white impasto feature strongly at the top middle and right of the canvas, while the same white and red impasto features minimally at the top and bottom of the canvas. The painting was executed primarily in thin, horizontal washes, which resulted in the layering of numerous vertical drips. Occasional passages of thick impasto are present throughout.
Place made
New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
Topic
African American
Abstract Expressionism
Architecture
Art
Fugitive enslaved
Self-liberation
Transportation
See more items in
National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
Portfolio/Series
Water Table
Classification
Visual Arts
Exhibition
Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
On View
NMAAHC (1400 Constitution Ave NW), National Mall Location, Culture/Fourth Floor, 4 052
Credit Line
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
Data Source
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Object number
2018.77
Type
paintings
Restrictions & Rights
© Torkwase Dyson
Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
Medium
acrylic paint on canvas with wood and wire
Dimensions
H x W x D: 96 × 72 × 2 in. (243.8 × 182.9 × 5.1 cm)
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd5ccceab11-6dc7-40d0-bac3-603a2b6894ec
Record ID
nmaahc_2018.77