Sand mandalas are colorful, intricate works of art that are destroyed upon completion. As a meditation on impermanence after days or weeks of creating their complex patterns, mandalas are ritualistically destroyed and brushed into an urn and spilled into a body of running water as a symbolic blessing and offering to the universe. Every intricate detail of these mandalas is fixed in the tradition and has many levels of specific symbolic meanings.

Drawing inspiration from this Buddhist tradition of building and destroying art, award-winning public artist Napoleon Jones-Henderson will lead a community workshop and street art project that offers commentary on the erasure of African Americans from our state’s history.  Under Jones-Henderson’s guidance, participants will create a piece that the community will paint on a Portsmouth street. We will film the gradual fading away of the art as it happens.

The eradication of the African Burying Ground in the 19^th century serves as a literal example of the erasure of Black people from New Hampshire’s history. This history of erasure serves as a metaphor and inspiration for the creation of a short-lived public art project as a social critique.  The communal construction of this work also evokes the social construction of race, and like the mandala that was built to be destroyed, we can choose to destroy the system that our society built.

WORKSHOP DETAILS

Dates: Thursday, June 16 & Friday, June 17

Time:    4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Location: TBA

DAY 1

Guest artist, Napoleon Jones Henderson, will begin the workshop with an overview of the history of public art and the role Black artists have played in its development. In addition, he will use examples of his work to explain major symbolic tropes present in his work and that of other Black artists.

Participants in the workshop will then use this information as a starting point to begin creating their own sketches. Some will be incorporated into the larger design of the project, “The Art of Erasure: Gone But Never Forgotten”

DAY 2

Under Napoleon’s guidance, participants will complete their sketches. Napoleon will collect the submissions, review them, and select the ones to incorporate into the final full-scale design. Three days later, the public will assist in painting that design on a yet-to-be-announced street in Portsmouth.

Registration is required for this workshop. Materials are provided. This is a four-hour commitment spread over two days. 

STREET ART PAINTING

Participants are invited to join the general public in painting the final street design on Monday, June 20^th beginning at 8:00 AM. The street location has not been announced.

The event is brought to you in partnership with 3S ArtSpace.