Interpreting the assemblages of Lonnie Holley through his performative explanations

Interpreting the assemblages of Lonnie Holley through his performative explanations Public Deposited

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Creator

Schultz, Sarah M.
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Art and Art History

Abstract

For the past three decades, Lonnie Holley has collected materials alongside highways, ditches and in the landfills near his home in Birmingham, Alabama. These objects are used as the raw material for his assemblages. His artistic combinations suggest new relationships between once familiar, now obsolete technologies such as old television sets, computer screens, electrical wiring, barbed wire fencing, rebar, and molded concrete. Interpretations of his work rarely go beyond recounting his extraordinary personal narrative as the seventh of twenty-seven children. This comes at the expense of an in-depth critical analysis of his material and the new relationships he creates in his assemblages. Through a critical analysis of three of his major works, The Inner Suffering of the Holy Cost, Little Top to the Big Top, and Cold Titty Mama I, this study explores how his materials are re-valued, or given new meaning when they are combined.

Date of publication