b. Brooklyn, New York, 1960
Flipside
1991
Gelatin silver photographs and engraved plastic plaque
Overall: 53 1/4 × 69 3/4 in. (135.3 × 177.2 cm); frame: 43 × 34 in. (109.2 × 86.4 cm) each; plaque: 4 1/4 × 14 5/8 in. (10.8 × 37.1 cm)
Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2005 (05.29)
© Lorna Simpson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Lee Stalsworth
The career of Lorna Simpson, best known for her photographic and text-based works, is rooted in an ongoing search for meaning through representation, language, and memory. Flipside is a prime example of how she uses text and image, juxtaposing black-and-white portraiture with text to create a nuanced and open-ended visual narrative. Flipside is composed of two photographs depicting the rear view, or “flip side,” of a woman and an African mask. The plaque beneath the photographs states, “The neighbors were suspicious of her hairstyle.” When these words are read in tandem with the images, a new narrative emerges. In their encounter with this work, the viewer becomes implicated in meaning-making, treading through connotations about the relationship of hair and power in the Black community, the othering of African art from dominant art-historical discourse, and the masking of the individual by obscuring the face.
