One Less Vote (2016) treated aluminum plate, 14” x 6” each
The phrase “one less vote” is the title of a political cartoon from 1868 that depicts a lynched black man. The phrase illustrates the systemic reach of terror by oppressive groups such as the KKK, the White League, and the Red Shirts to maintain the white supremacy. There was absolutely no limit to the possible means of intimidation and violence against blacks and their white allies, in order to control the election process. They would go as far as lynch people one by one. Today, we still hear reports of election fraud throughout the US. The series of fictitious “ballots” etched in aluminum and valchromat board is a way to depict each of these lives whose rights are denied. Lives that are worth so little in the eyes of others. Each ballot thus becomes a reflection and a memorial. The aluminum pieces are treated using the same oxidation process that is used to blacken small cheap firearms; thereby linking lost lives to gun violence. If you look closely, some suggest a portrait or figure. The series was created during a residency at the Warfield Center for African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin; where it was exhibited in Otitigbe’s Patience on a Monument.
