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Clearing the Forest, 2003 to 2007
Cloth, buttons, thread, pen and ink, pencil, and paint on light blue batik paper sewn with blue buttons
46 in x 18 in
Private Collection
Curator’s comments
A rag painting that is layered with meaning as well as fabrics and buttons given to Aminah Robinson by friends and acquaintances from Columbus and places she has visited. Based on the stories her Uncle Alvin told her as she was growing up as well as in old maps she studied at the library, these works document the community that bordered the Scioto River in downtown Columbus before the monumental 1913 flood. Aminah describes the series as "going back and forth in history" and including references to early Native-American and African inhabitants who populated the area hundreds of years ago as well as more recent nineteenth- and twentieth-century communities.
Artist’s comments
In the clearing in the Blackberry Patch area, there were the farmlands that had to be cleared to make way for the Mount Vernon Avenue area. Mount Vernon was Johnston Plank Road- plank, brick, blacktop.
Visitors’ comments
Series
Life Along Water StreetExhibition history
Along Water Street: New Work by Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, CMA July 6, 2007-Feb 24, 2008; Ohio tour 2009 (Akron Art Museum, Decorative Arts Center, Southern Ohio Museum, Springfield Art Museum