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 indigo dye with reproductions of documents related to the True Blue Plantation. The edges of the portrait are rough. There is a small to medium sized gap in the upper right quadrant. In the center left is a piece of a document of text within in black text box reading [True Blu-].

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: Trans-Atlantic slave trade
• Topic: U.S. History, 2001-
• Object number: 2021.42.5
• 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.