I Sang The Blues Black: 9 Holes: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This framed mixed media portrait by Adebunmi Gbadebo is a composition of screen-printed white hand-made paper, cotton, clumps and strands of black hair, and varying degrees of indigo dye mixed with reproductions of documents related to the True Blue Plantation. The edges of the portrait are rough. In the top left quadrant is an intense patch of indigo dye. In this same area are two pieces of paper with black text.

The first piece of paper refers to a slavery rating system and is divided into two columns and the text "prime hand," "half hand," "Supersnnuated," "Overseer's nurse," and "prime hand" repeated again several times. Diagonally below and to the right is the second piece of paper with names: [[illegible] / Rachel / Dolly / Phillis / Joseph / Selina / Mary / [illegible] / Be- / Ga- ].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 2019
• Created by: Adebunmi Gbadebo, American, born 1992
• Type: multimedia works
• Medium: mixed media: human hair, cotton, rice paper, denim, indigo, dye
• Dimensions: H x W x D (overall install): 93 × 78 × 3 in. (236.2 × 198.1 × 7.6 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W x D (each frame): 30 × 25 × 2 1/2 in. (76.2 × 63.5 × 6.4 cm)
• Place depicted: Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: African diaspora
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Barbershops
• Topic: Hair
• Topic: Men
• Topic: Slavery
• Topic: Women
• Object number: 2021.42.1
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture purchased with funds provided by the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center and generously supported by American Express
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Adebunmi Gbadebo Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.