Scarred Chest, from the series B®anded,

2003

In his series <em>B®anded</em>, Thomas investigates the influence of sportswear advertising, the construction of Black male identity, and the commodification of Black male bodies. Here, the athletically muscled torso of a Black man fills the frame, his chest marred by nine swoop-shaped scars—immediately recognizable as the brand trademark of Nike—that the artist has inserted through digital manipulation. By transforming the Nike logo into a wound, Thomas evokes the latticework scars left on enslaved persons by the lacerations of a whip and the historical punishment of branding those who fled, drawing parallels between sports corporations that profit from Black athletes and the painful history of enslavement and forced labor. In conflating these histories, the artist illustrates the entanglement of Black American history, sports, and slavery.

<p><strong>Student label, AAS 349 / ART 364, Seeing to Remember: Representing Slavery Across the Black Atlantic, Spring 2017:</strong> </p> <p>Thomas’s <em>Scarred Chest</em> is a digital chromogenic print from his series <em>Branded</em>, in which he explores links among sports, advertising, and the history of slavery through the exploitation of the black body. Here, he depicts a black man’s torso, with the Nike swoosh imprinted as scars across his breast, eight on the left and one on the right. That the Nike logo is so indelibly marked upon his body suggests the ways in which brands like Nike have come to use people's bodies to help sell their products.</p> <p>Thomas focuses intently on the body of his subject, presenting it at larger-than-life scale and tightly cropping the picture to remove the figure’s head or any surroundings. This cropping removes any sense of the figure’s subjectivity. The tops of the figure’s legs and his pelvic area have, however, been included within the frame; while Thomas does not show the figure’s genitalia, he strongly hints at it. The image is therefore loaded with sexuality and virility, suggesting that these characteristics have been constructed as part of black athletic identity.</p> <p>The nine Nike scars on the figure are presumably from branding, referring to the fact that slave-owners regularly branded the people they had enslaved, much like livestock, in order to assert their ownership of them. Here, Thomas suggests that corporations today profit from their associations with the accomplishments of black athletes. Within the framework of modern consumerism, anyone who wears apparel with logos becomes a form of advertisement.</p> <p><strong>Mairead Horton<br>Princeton Class of 2017</strong></p>

<p>Initially, the figure Thomas presents seems perfect, a representation of the ideal male form. While this remains true, on closer inspection one can see a number of imperfections in the body. Two creases stretch across the stomach—probably formed from natural movement but more noticeable than usual. A small amount of light discoloration is apparent in the lower right section of the figure’s pelvic area. Most striking is realizing that the musculature of the abdomen and pectoral muscles are in fact not symmetrical. While this is an ideal male form it is not a perfect one.</p> <p>This intense focus on the man’s torso underscores the fact that the body has come to be used in advertising. Brands like Nike not only focus on athleticism in many of their ads; they also regularly focus on the athleticism of the black body in particular. Michael Jordan, for example, has become so associated with the brand that a simple silhouette of his body—associated with Air Jordans—is immediately recognizable. Thomas has even used Jordan’s silhouette in works such as <em>Shooting Stars</em> (2011). Nike benefits from its association with these athletes and their bodies, and Thomas knowingly plays with these advertising tropes. </p> <p><strong>Mairead Horton<br>Princeton Class of 2017</strong><br>(prepared for the course AAS 349 / ART 364, Seeing to Remember: Representing Slavery Across the Black Atlantic, Spring 2017)<br></p>