Black Girl on Skateboard Going Where She’s Got to Go to Do What She’s Got to Do and It Might Not Have Anything to Do With You, Ever

Date2022

MediumLemony things: vintage French beaded flowers, a yellow skateboard like I never had when I was a fat little Black girl in Los Angeles when riding a skateboard meant that you could fly, Capidomonte Ceramic Lemon Center piece, a dance in my thighs, high yellow so-flat paint, porcelain bird figurines, decorative resin lemons, papery yellow flowers; meanness transmuted, love, oil paint stick, rage, self-loathing transmuted, a joy-bitch, masturbation, plaster, wood glue, black pigment, giddiness, freedom in the body, freedom in the Soul, wood, tar, wire, a distinct and purposeful healing, hope, yellow flood light, heart, yellow decorative ceramic magnolia figurine, acceptance, abandon, not being afraid to be full of your own self in your own divine body, divinity, fear transmuted, plaster gauze, magic, silicone, tears, epoxy, water, tomorrow, now, yes.

Dimensions48 × 22 × 26 inches (121.9 × 55.9 × 66 cm)

Credit LineArt Bridges

Object numberEX.IR.03

On View

On view

Label TextBlack Girl on Skateboard… provides a meditation on the color yellow through physical objects and the written word. vanessa german, a self-taught ‘citizen’ artist, often crafts these sculptures, which she refers to as power figures, out of discarded materials from her local community. Drawing from Congolese Nkisi sculptures and elements of American folk art, german’s power figures are intended to serve as protectors for Black people against violence. They defy figurative expectations and emphasize their vibrancy through emotion and energy.