The Era of the Tongue and Lung (Full Installation) - Ayanah Moor
The Era of the Tongue and Lung, Ayanah Moor

The Era of the Tongue and Lung

Artist

Ayanah Moor

Nationality

American

Heritage

African American

Medium

Screenprint

Date

2012

Dimensions

21 1/2 x 30 inches

Edition Size

6;10;8 prints in this edition

Printer

Gustavo Garcia

Veronica Hanssens

Provenance

Brandywine Workshop and Archives

Location

Philadelphia, PA

About the Work

The Era of the Tongue and Lung is inspired by Zora Neale Hurston's 1938 essay, “Art and Such.” Moor’s use of the text is enhanced by repetition and the multiple layering of colors.  installed in a grid or quilt-like manner, the pattern, rhythm, and color transform a little-known Hurston excerpt into a contemporary image rich in connotation. In her essay, Hurston used the phrase in reference to the era of Frederick Douglass, “a period of sound and emotion,” of great orators and “Race Champions”. Repositioned in the present day through Moor’s installation, the phrase readily acquires rhetorical and physical meaning. 
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records

About the Artist

Ayanah Moor

Painter, printmaker, and performance-artist Ayanah Moor was born in Norfolk, VA. She received a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and an MFA from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.

Moor's work can be found in the c...

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