RENEE STOUT’S DAILY BREAD
If you ask Renee Stout about her work she might first tell you that she is a "healer" or a "medicine woman" and in the same breath she might say she is a big-picture woman seeking music and metaphor to voice the communal energy and exchange that she witnesses on a daily basis. And in her next breath, she will probably neglect to mention that her current exhibit,” Journal: Book One” is a visual testimonial to her soundtrack.
Since Stout is mildly tight-lipped about her solo exhibit at the Hemphill Fine Arts Gallery in Washington, DC. It leaves some to ponder, “Will her work be synonymous to ‘The Book as Art’ at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in 2006? Or will Stout’s alter ego, Fatima Mayfield, show us more "Fragments of a Secret Life" from Hemphill and the Hammonds House Gallery in 2005?"
Either way Stout's new work is sure to conjure something in us that will inspire. “Journal: Book One” offers 26 examples of dialogue and experience through acrylic, collage, mixed media, murky glass bottles, metal objects of “Spiritual Supplies” (2007) interlaced with Stout’s words. Some collages evoke a Wangechi Mutu-like sentiment of present-past versus human-ethereal while noting Stout’s unique process and experience.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Stout has been in Washington, DC since 1985. Although she is quick to say what she has gained from living in the area, her modesty will not allow her to talk about the many seeds that she has sown in the same community she draws from. As the first American to exhibit at the National Museum of African Art accompanied by, “Astonishment & Power: The Eyes of Understanding”, a catalog published by the Smithsonian (1993) http://www.si.edu/, Stout’s work establishes precedent and possesses a keen understanding of her community.
Stout’s work not only evokes community, but also engages other mediums. “This is the Place” (1997) and “Hoodoo You Love: Prose, Poetry, and Art from the Black Rooster Workshop” (1998) feature Stout’s art and poetry, along with prose from members of the Black Rooster Collective. These two seminal books have influenced the next generation of visual artists and poets in the DC metro area. And with gravity of Stout’s past works and current exhibit, we are happy she shares, and hopes she continues to do so.
“Journal: Book One” is at the Hemphill in Washington, DC through October 27.