BLACK TORSO

During my research on the topic of slavery and racism, I came across the story of Peter Gordon and the photograph of his back from 1863, taken in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

 

Peter Gordon's whipped back is an iconic symbol of the unimaginable suffering of millions of children, women and men who were abducted from their homelands and cruelly enslaved by European slave traders over the last 400 years.

 

The consequences of this crime are massive and still visible today.

 

In my sculpture I represent the polarity of man, the good and the bestial evil, manifested in the scars on the back.

 

It was important to me to portray the body powerfully and with dignity, as if the inflicted pain could not harm it.