Scott Alves Barton: Artist Talk and Reception

May 14, 2022 - 3:00pm - 5:00pm

Photo: Daniel McCullough
Photo: Daniel McCullough

FREE

There can be no reconciliation and healing without remembering the past.
— Bryan Stephenson

Join artist Scott Alves Barton for an artist talk about his current Lynden exhibition, Buried in the Heart: A Repast for Angels and Martyrs. A reception will follow the talk.

A major aspect of honoring the dead and the living is encapsulated in the foods and meals of mourning, ebó (offertory), sacraments, and gustatory rites for both entities. The repast is foundational as a site of memory to generate a protocol that fosters and enshrines collective memory. Our repast rites for the dead are concurrently touchstones for the living: providing a bridge between the realms, and an ongoing dialogue with our heritage traditions. In this exhibition of artefacts and video, food scholar and chef Scott Barton has created a literal and symbolic repast that individually and archetypically honors the deaths of Ahmaud “Maud” Arbery, Breonna Shaquelle Taylor, and George Perry Floyd Jr., and the maiming of Jacob S. Blake Jr. By creating and sharing a meal we also honor the multitude of individuals killed by state sponsored or private violence. This repast, begun during the hard lockdown, focuses on dishes that the four individuals would have enjoyed eating or cooking. The repast was shared with four of Barton’s neighbors--Charles Daniel Dawson, Marie Dutton Brown, John Pinderhughes, and John Dowell, all Harlem elders--also in the roles of individuals and archetypes. Within their lives and their works, these four individuals are dedicated to civil rights, Black culture, the politics of identity and respect for Black life, and restorative justice.

The exhibition remains on view through May 29.

This is a Call & Response event.


©2024 Lynden Sculpture Garden