Artist at Work x 4CPA | Noelle Lorraine Williams
To Be Seen
To Be Seen is a street intervention that utilizes oversized carte de visite images of printed on PolyTab on a gold background of African American women from photography studios in Downtown Newark near the site on Treat Street and on Springfield Avenue. As an artist, Noelle Lorraine Williams’s work for the past 14 years focuses on utilizing African American women’s stories and images to interpret what it means to be American today. To Be Seen expands on her practice of “inserting” images of African American women and men into the Newark historical visual landscape.
To Be Seen uses three images from Newark photographers of African American women circa the late 19th century. The images include: J.H. Smith and J. Renee Smith whose practices were on Broad Street near Broad and Market for almost two decades and Springfield Avenue’s Morris Yogi. To Be Seen is a historical marker revealing African American women who confronted a racist and sexist American visual culture by employing local Newark photographers to create beautiful and powerful images of themselves
To Be Seen featured in Phase I of the Four Corners Public Arts (4CPA) project.
About Noelle Lorraine Williams
Noelle Lorraine Williams is a Newark based artist whose work exemplifies her interest in engaging individuals in conversations about community and spirituality using art, history and contemporary culture. She utilizes stories about African American women’s culture to understand what it means to be American today. To Be Seen also expands on her practice of “inserting” images of African American women and men into the Newark historical visual landscape. Her work as a visual artist has been mentioned in the New York Times, Art News, and other publications.
TRANSCRIPT
NOELLE: All of my work deals with how we understand history in the public sphere. I use African-American women’s stories and voices to understand that. These photos were taken in the 1880s, they’re unidentified, but they all hang near Broad and Market. They reclaim their images as Black women right here in Newark. It’s inviting folks to like walk, to be in the space, see people’s faces, see that people actually do care, you know, so that’s what I think is awesome.
About Four Corners Public Arts
Four Corners Public Arts was initiated in 2019 through a public/private partnership convened to support public arts initiatives in Newark’s historic district “Four Corners”. The partnership includes The City of Newark, Invest Newark, Newark Arts, Newark Downtown District, Paramount Assets, and RBH Group. The partnership evolved out of a common interest to give care to under-acknowledged areas of the City through the arts, with the goal of cultivating creative communal space for everyone. At a time when Newark is undergoing a marked transformation, the partnership believes it is imperative to create opportunities that strengthen the local creative community.
This story was supported, in part, by a Newark Creative Catalyst grant.
Special thanks to The City of Newark, New Jersey.
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