© Lorna Simpson
Currently not on view
Counting,
1991
Lorna Simpson, American, born 1960
x1992-1
Three photographs—a cropped image of a woman’s clavical, a smokehouse that once held slaves, and a coil of braided hair—are framed against a black background and flanked with texts demarcating different kinds of counting: measures of time and numbers of twists, braids, locks, bricks, and years. Simpson’s practice of pairing photography and text both recalls and questions the systems of documentary and
anthropological photography in which pictures are regarded as evidence. While the meaning of Counting is deliberately open-ended, Simpson’s choices of cropping and framing resist traditional ways of presenting the black female body while nevertheless insisting on her presence.
anthropological photography in which pictures are regarded as evidence. While the meaning of Counting is deliberately open-ended, Simpson’s choices of cropping and framing resist traditional ways of presenting the black female body while nevertheless insisting on her presence.
Information
Title
Counting
Dates
1991
Maker
Medium
Photogravure and screenprint
Dimensions
187.5 × 96 cm (73 13/16 × 37 13/16 in.)
frame: 192.1 × 101.3 × 6.3 cm (75 5/8 × 39 7/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, gift of Sarah Sage McAlpin, honorary member, Class of 1920
Object Number
x1992-1
Place Made
North America, United States
Inscription
Numbered, titled, signed, and dated in graphite, lower right corner: 42//60 Counting Lorna
Simpson / 91
Culture
Materials
Techniques
Subject
