Elizabeth Alexander

A Mightier Work is Ahead: Lee and Staff, 2021
hand cut found porcelain, dust, glass, cork, gold leaf, and brass
13 x 8 x 1 in
$3,600
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1 of 10 altered pieces from the "Jackson and Lee: Legends in Gray" collection of commemorative plates. 

In this series, titled "A Greater Work is Ahead" Alexander has altered pieces from the "Jackson and Lee: Legends in Gray" collection of commemorative plates. These plates were printed long after the Civil War with romantic illustrations and created for people to hang in their homes, to pass dangerous values down to future generations aided by collectible marketing.

When the artist stumbled across her first set of plates in a tiny junk shop it felt like a call to action. She immediately envisioned using the porcelain cutting techniques she has mastered to grind out these harmful symbols of oppression. Alexander edits each plate by extracting the Confederate symbols, leaving only the American landscape between the voids. The dust from each removal is harvested and displayed below its plate of origin to show that history cannot be erased; there is still a residue and the dust remains.



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