Damond Howard
In my artistic work, I use the self-portrait to explore and question relationships that construct identity and subjecthood. As a black male in a largely white culture, I want to capture feelings of domination, subordination, oppression, and suppression that are a part of my everyday experience. At the same time, however, I work from the premise that engaging with and exploring the inner workings of the dominant culture, especially as it relates to issues of race, is the most fruitful way to address the conditions of African-Americans at this moment in history. My approach is this performative in nature. As an African-American, I find that I have to be highly performative to survive by constantly adjusting to the ever-changing social and institutional advancement.
White and black "colors" are metaphors in my work. The color white, when graphically applied by pencil marks on a black figure, serves as metaphors for light. I use light to signal not only the benevolent elements that exist in the dominant culture's various ameliorative attempts, but also the somewhat ore malevolent aim of the white power structure to construct a compliant used marketable black identity. The color black in my work also has a dual function. Firstly, I use black to represent the behavior of some individuals in sectors of the black community (including blacks in academia, business, politics, churches, and entertainment) that have been detrimental to the collective but still diverse identities of black people in America. The nature of that detriment is found in a way these sectors privilege their own self-interests, whatever form these might take, over the greater interests of the community. Some, for instance, objectify black culture by rendering it exotic and selling it like a tourist attraction, while others exploit characteristics of the culture by constructing and forwarding imaginary role models and stereotypes to be celebrated and followed. Of course, this is not to imply that the definition of all roll models is negative, for on can easily think of positive role models. My point here is rather that it is always important to question carefully just exactly whose interests the role models serve.
Conversely, when employed as shadow, whether marked onto the picture plane as a figure or showing through as the black that serves as ground, black in my work metaphorically points to the actual struggle of representation that African-Americans must negotiate to better control the construction of their own identity in the all-but-overpowering white power structure. Firstly, I employ the shadow to serve as a symbol of safe haven from where those who are not sure of their own identity in a particular situation wait and observe the inner-workings of the context. And secondly, it represents a site used by the black community to treat trauma and suppress rage at not only the historical but also the contemporary conditions of black people in America.
The notion of this single figure representation is aligned with my attempt to emphasize that I can only speak from my own point of view. This, however, does not mean that I can only speak from my own point of view, for as I noted earlier, I work from the assumption that my identity, is multidimensional: I perform my identity differently in different contexts. However, as a visible minority, in each situation I find it difficult to fully assimilate into the majority. In the eyes of some, I'm seen only as a "black male." It is from this point of view that I treat not only identity, but also the representation of identity, as the most important site of struggle today.
e d u c a t i o n
2001 Master of Fine Arts, School of Art and Art History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
1996 Bachelor of Science, Art Education; South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina
t e a c h i n g e x p e r i e n c e
Present Assistant Professor of Art, Claflin University,
Department of Art, Orangeburg, South Carolina
2003-04 Assistant Professor of Art, Kenyon College,
Fine Art and Art History, Gambier, Ohio
2001-03 Assistant Professor of Art, Benedict College,
Fine Arts Department, Columbia, South Carolina
1998-2001 Adjunct-Assistant Professor, University of Florida,
School of Art & Art History, Gainesville, Florida
2001 Adjunct Instructor, Art Department,
Santa Fe Community College, Gainesville, Florida
1997-98 Art Teacher, Andrews Primary School,
Andrews, South Carolina; Stall High School,
North Charleston, South Carolina
e x h i b i t i o n s
2003 convergence, Regional Juried Art Exhibition,
The College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, Ohio
2002 Moja Arts Festival Juried Art Exhibition,
Avery Research Center, Charleston, South Carolina
Changing Times, Changing Minds since 9/11,
The Benedict College Art Faculty group exhibition,
Ponder Fine Arts Gallery, Benedict College,
Columbia, South Carolina
Why is it Art, I.P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium,
South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina
2001-02 Diversity, Benedict College Art Faculty group exhibition,
Columbia South Carolina, Traveling: Florida A&M University,
Tallahassee, Florida; Burroughs & Chapin Museum, Myrtle Beach,
South Carolina; Opra House Museum, Sumter, South Carolina;
and Lucy Craft Laney Museum, Augusta, Georgia
2001 Black Creativity Juried Exhibition,
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois.
2000 28th Bradley National Print and Drawing Exhibition,
The Hartmann Center for the Performing Arts and Heuser Art Center,
Bradley University.
1999 Specific to Burnsville, Site specific installation,
Burnsville, North Carolina and Penland School of Crafts,
Penland, North Carolina
1998 Diaspora: Tradition & Innovation in Contemporary African-
American Art & Sea Island Retrospective,
Walter Greet Gallery and The Self Family Arts Center,
Hilton Head, South Carolina