“All the political people are buried in the ground which makes the landscape political.”~Faith Ringgold
Oil on canvas with pieced fabric border
87 x 48 in.
During the summer of 1972, when Faith Ringgold was traveling within Europe she began making watercolors of landscapes that she called Political Landscapes – delicate watercolor drawings that incorporated text by her daughter Michele. What was important for Ringgold, was the depiction of landscape as a political and historical space. Landscapes in her paintings are spaces holding and signifying historical and contemporary experiences, feelings, and ideas.
The Slave Rape Series consists of 20 paintings showing nude Black women within landscapes.
The dark titles of the works ensured they would not be mistaken as enticing individual portraits but instead reveal the specter of the lasting and ongoing trauma of forceful abduction, enslavement, and sexual violence that Black women were subjected to and struggled against – no space was safe. In Slave Rape #3: Fight to Save your Life a pregnant woman looks directly at the viewer, with one hand she gently touches her abdomen, with the other, she holds a machete. The titles of the works often include phrases that, as often, place the burden to defend themselves on the victim of sexual violence (“Fear Will Make You Weak,” “Run You Might Get Away,” or “Fight to Save Your Life”) – recalling the bravery and resilience of the women who survived these horrors.