TONI SCOTT: DNA – BLOODLINES AND THE FAMILY OF MANKIND

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TONI SCOTT: DNA – BLOODLINES AND THE FAMILY OF MANKIND
Dame Jillian Sackler International Artists Exhibition Program

We are pleased to announce that this exhibition has traveled to the Changzhou Museum.

CHANGZHOU MUSEUM
Changzhou, Jiangsu Sheng, China

January 29 to March 29, 2016

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TONI SCOTT: DNA – BLOODLINES AND THE FAMILY OF MANKIND
Dame Jillian Sackler International Artists Exhibition Program
Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University
Beijing, China

July 4 to October 15, 2015

We are pleased to announce that contemporary artist Toni Scott has been chosen for the 2015 Dame Jillian Sackler International Artists Exhibition Program at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University, Beijing, China.

Toni Scott will present Bloodlines. In the United States her Bloodlines exhibitions dealt with her “maternal and paternal lineage and genealogical information and stories gathered from relatives.” For China she will “expand the theme adding new dimensions inspired by recent DNA findings that forge together histories and relationships of Native Americans to the peoples of Asia and Africa.” DNA – BLOODLINES AND THE FAMILY OF MANKIND will open in July, 2015.

In the main gallery, Toni Scott will create a slave boat, a 20 ft. long by 8 ft. high by 8 ft. wide floating vessel created with images of slaves, flooded with inner light that will cast the images of suffering onto the floor below. Viewers will be able to submerge themselves into the lives of African Americans by observing the multitude of images that make up the vessel. Also on display will be new DNA – Bloodlines works specially created for this exhibition.

For the courtyard, one large and two smaller teepees are planned. Each teepee on the outside will be decorated in traditional Native American style, but the inside will showcase the past, the present and the future of Native American lives through writings by Native American children and people of all ages. It will be a celebration of the human spirit and the will to live and prosper in a humane social and multi-cultural world.

Toni Scott, a Citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation and of African and Native American descent, is a multi-media artist. Her Bloodlines work on the history of slavery in America and her personal ancestry has traveled across the United States, notably a three-year solo exhibit at the California African American Museum. Toni graduated from the University of Southern California and received training at the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design (Otis College of Art and Design) and the Art Center College of Design. Her work is in the African American Museum in Los Angeles and other institutions and in private collections around the world.

The Dame Jillian Sackler International Artists Exhibition Program was established to bring talented international artists to the Sackler Museum at Beida. Artwork for this program must have cultural value in order to create an open dialogue between the work and the viewer. The aim of this program is to create cross-cultural understanding and long-lasting relationships between peoples by bringing to China works by artists from diverse backgrounds. It is our mission to have exhibitions that are informative, exciting, interactive and most of all thoughtful, encouraging peace and harmony amongst peoples.

本次重大展览系统地探讨了非裔美国人和美国原住民不幸的处境，此举只有像托妮•斯科特这样的艺术家才能做到，因为她拥有白人、黑人和原住民的祖先。

在博物馆的入口处和庭院设立了一组的圆锥形帐篷，它们是美国印第安人的标志，帐篷上面覆盖着从岩刻及贝雕上采集的美国原住民图形，五颜六色。尽管有一部分美国原住民不赞成以这些圆锥形帐篷来表示自己的民族，此展中的帐篷则代表了仍然在美国生活的各个部落。有些部落已融入了美国文化，像托妮这样的原住民后裔仍然坚持延续着这个民族的火焰，保持着祖先们的历史记忆以及他们在这个世界上应有的位置。美国原住民文化崇尚大自然和环保生活，这值得我们所有的人借鉴学习。

在主馆展出的重要展品是一艘奴隶船，借此勾勒出当时非洲奴隶的贩卖活动，他们被阿拉伯人，欧洲人甚至自己人高价出售交易的场景。大部分的奴隶被带到美洲大陆，从此经历长达几百年的苦难。直到南北战争时期1863年1月1日亚伯拉罕•林肯总统发布了《解放黑奴宣言》，奴隶们才开始走向自由的缓慢长征。非裔美国人在民权运动之前一直都没有完全得到他们的权利，1955年12月1日罗莎•帕克斯因拒绝在公交车上让座给白人而被捕入狱。此事件推动了美国黑人民权运动，马丁•路德•金成为运动领袖，1964年民权法案终于在最高法院获得通过。此作品同样也庆祝1965年颁布的选举权法案