Philadelphia Negro
2019 - ongoing
24-hour video loop, Wood, Steel, Brass
Installed in the atrium of the University of Pennsylvania's sociology department, a monitor affixed to a wooden pedestal plays a 24hr video of a bronze bust of W.E.B Du Bois at Clark Atlanta University. A plaque commemorating Du Bois' one-year employment at Penn as an assistant instructor, is attached to the front of the pedestal.
Du Bois, one of the fathers of modern sociology, had a one-year tenure as a researcher at Penn where he began work on The Philadelphia Negro, one of the most extensive ethnographic studies within the field. Due to the institution’s racial bias his contract was expired, after which he continued his work at the historically black Clark Atlanta University. Installed unofficially, the piece has remained on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus as an adjunct monument.