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USA
South
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Birmingham, AL
African Village In America - Joe Minter
1935-
Environment
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Information:
Created: 1989 - now
Joe Minter's "African Village in America" is located in southwest Birmingham, Alabama, next door to the house where he and his wife Hilda live. Painted a brilliant blue, the house abuts a quarter-acre parcel of land that - despite its chain-link fence enclosure and its pathways of wooden planks - conjures up a vision of an intimate, densely packed tropical garden, set with zinnias, marigolds, roses, purple spiderwort, and an array of lush, dark green leafy plants.
Interspersed within the vibrant flora are brightly painted tin and wood constructions, mixed-media pieces made of found objects-dolls, old car parts, chains, and cast-off boots-and placards painted with statements from Scripture and the Civil Rights movement. All are dominated by huge silhouettes of abstract metal and wooden shapes, many recalling human forms that loom elegantly and evocatively against the sky.
As if unable to constrain the burgeoning organic life that it contains, the garden spills out so that its haunting creatures - large and small - frame Minter's home. They occupy the carport on the house's other side, pack the garage behind it, and across the street, Minter's metallic morphs and his hand-painted signs fill the yard, porch, and the rooms of another house.
Text excerpted from Orange Hill Gallery
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Bibliography:
An article and image of Joe Minter's place is available in .pdf format on number:inc. See Number 43, Winter 2002, Page 6.
"Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South: the Ronald and June Shelp Collection", Cronwill, Danto, Gaither, Gundaker and McWillie, 2001.
"Souls Grown Deep: African American vernacular Art of the South", Vol 2, Arnett, et al, 2001. |
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