Gallery Hop: "I Was Here"

Multi-media collaboration between Nikki Finney, Marjorie Guyon and Patrick Mitchell.

I Was Here - a multi-media artistic collaboration between poet Nikky Finney, artist Marjorie Guyon and photographer Patrick J. Mitchell - will premiere at the Sept. 21 Gallery Hop at the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning.

With a focus centering on the public square at Lexington's Cheapside, which was one of the largest slave auction sites in the United States, the project is composed of 21 Ancestor Spirit Portraits . The exhibition also references the Bight of Benin, the Igbo Landing on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, the Broeck Course in Savannah as well as other physical locations central to the transatlantic Middle Passage Slave trade. 

 In early October, large scale renditions of the Ancestor Spirit Portraits integrated with Nikky Finney’s poetic language are to be installed in select windows and doorways that surround the Old Courthouse. The original art pieces have been recreated as roman shades that can be lowered at night to bring the Ancestor Spirit Portraits into view in the Public Square.The faces and bodies of the nine models utilized by the artists are artistic representations of those unnamed ancestors. 

The primary innovation of this project is to utilize the Public Square as an exhibition space creating an outdoor museum open to all. A legend to guide the public through this installation will be available as the pieces are installed.

A community conversation, poetry reading and artist’s talk moderated by Finney is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 22 at the Carnegie Center.

 “We believe at this time in all our lives, on this small corner of the earth, it is necessary to illuminate, as evocatively and powerfully as we know how, the living presence of the real human beings who once stood waiting to be bought and sold and who faced unspeakable human crimes against their humanity,” Finney said. “It is never too late to remember and honor a piece of the human puzzle that makes us who we are. I Was Here honors that memory.”

“The goal of the project is to plant a vision in the heart of Lexington, one that believes the spirit of the past can be redeemed and our future, as fellow citizens, more richly nurtured,” Mitchell said.

 “This project seeks to begin the precious human work of looking at, looking behind and looking ahead,” Guyon added.

Visit http://i-was-here.org/about.html for more information.