Beacon

“William Villalongo’s work expands the imaginaries of historical continuums and blurs the perceptions and assumptions connected to visibility and the Black past. Beacon 2022 exists as an installation tethered to, yet free from physical properties of reflective light and gravity. The work brings together references that overlap the Black Mediterranean and the Black Atlantic as geographies and diasporic bridges. The work’s title refers to the alignment of stars used to navigate out of the slavery of the US south and the metaphoric pathways of self-care and imagination. A range of vessels, shells and objects dangle from links of fat gold chains as charms, talismans, protective gestures and reminders. The mythological dimensions of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea as containers of trauma, forced displacement, and as a gravesite that is still growing is bisected by the aspirational nature of the range of found objects, resurfaced with velvet imbuing them with warmth, softness and depth. The visual composition of the work expands and informs the sonic elements that are the fruit of Villalongo’s collaboration with composer Igor Santos. The soundscape that is integrated into the work draws upon both artists’ interest in the movement and metaphor of water. Beacon is currently on display until March 11 at Villa Romana: Glass Pavillon in Florence, Italy curated by Black History Month Florence with the support of the American Academy in Rome and The Recovery Plan.” -Justin Randolph Thompson

The new work builds on the artist’s research in Rome, Italy as the 2022 Jules Guerin & Harold M. English Rome Prize Fellow in Visual Art. Beacon, 2022 bridges folklore from the American South and the Italian South. The artist continues the use of fashioning velvet coated “drinking gourds’ referencing the American folk song “Follow the Drinking Gourd” which is said to be coded directions for the enslaved escaping north on the Underground Railroad. Meanwhile, the Sicilian ceramic tradition of Testa di Moro dates back to the 11th Century born out a legend of love and revenge between a Sicilian maiden and a Moorish Prince. Scorned the maiden cuts of his head after finding that he has a family at home. She places his head on her balcony and plants basil in it. The basil was said to have grown so beautifully that all the townspeople wanted a Testa di Moro (Head of a Moor) on their balcony. The artist was interested in the lines between fact and fiction and how these narratives speak to the Black presence across the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

focus: The Armory show 2021

Villalongo was selected for inclusion in the FOCUS section of the Fair, curated by Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Chief Curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

keep your head to the sky

The velvet-flocked gourds that populate "Keep Your Head to the Sky" appear alongside a variety of objects that carry symbolic weight in African American culture and history. Each object is linked to a network of 18k gold chains, not unlike charms on a bracelet. The velvet flocking acts to shift meaning from the literal to the metaphoric. The gourds in this work reference the Big Dipper constellation once used as a navigational device on the Underground Railroad. The minerals attached, Obsidian, quartz and Tourmaline, are believed to shield against negative energies, dissolving emotional blockages and ancient trauma. The cowry shells speak to black labor on whose backs road the economy of the colonial Atlantic. Coral elements reference the artist's own Afro-Caribbean roots. The velvet coated resin hands that support the chains are casts taken from the hands of the artist and his wife. For Villalongo, love and family provide the strength to persevere and the will to find the Way. To quote the words of Earth, Wind and Fire...Keep Your Head to the Sky.