Artwork Page for Slack Power

Details / Information for Slack Power

Series Title: Unbranded: Reflections in Black Corporate America

Slack Power

2006

Hank Willis Thomas

(American, 1976-)
Culture
America
Medium
digital chromogenic print
Measurements
Image: 119.4 x 87 cm (47 x 34 1/4 in.); Framed: 143.4 x 111 cm (56 7/16 x 43 11/16 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2012.62
Impression
1
Copyright
© Hank Willis Thomas
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

The Unbranded series encourages us to consider how advertising reinforces generalizations surrounding race, gender, and cultural identity.

Description

Hank Willis Thomas chose 2 ads per year published in Ebony, a magazine aimed at African Americans, between 1968—the year Martin Luther King was assassinated—and 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected president. He subtracted all the branding information from the images and added titles, often satirical, to each image. The result is a four-decade survey of how advertisers thought African Americans wanted to see themselves.
A vertically oriented digital chromogenic print depicts a muscular man with a medium-dark skin tone standing against a mottled background. He is shirtless with dark chest hair, arms bent and hands on his hips. He wears high-waisted red, yellow, and black plaid trousers secured by a thin black belt and dark shoes. Facing forward, he looks toward us with the side of his body on our right bathed in light.

Slack Power

2006

Hank Willis Thomas

(American, 1976-)
America

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