TERRY ADKINS

In Adkins’s work, form speaks to history and is manipulated to reflect on its own status as a mediator. Through the subtle combinations of found, altered, and crafted objects that compose his assemblages and installations, the specific gestures by which Adkins stages the memorials of individuals compels the viewer to reconsider history from smaller ports of entry and little-known perspectives.

—Nizan Shaked

Ars Memoria Alexandria (2012) is a large-scale x-ray photograph by Terry Adkins of a memory jug, a commemorative object placed as grave markers in Southern Black communities. With origins in Congolese burial rites, the vessels are embedded with everyday articles such as jewelry, keys, glass vials, mirrors, crystals, shells, and other objects that had belonged to the deceased. This jug was from Adkins’s own collection of these artifacts. This work is the second in a planned edition of five; as the remainder were never realized, this is the last remaining work.

TERRY ADKINS
Ars Memoria Alexandria
2012
Digital print
64 1/2 x 43 1/2 inches (163.8 x 110.5 cm)
© Terry Adkins / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Courtesy of the Estate of Terry Adkins