Imo Nse Imeh
Ten Little Nigger Girls
Art for the Soul Gallery, Tower Square, 1500 Main St., Springfield
Imo Nse Imeh’s exhibit takes the wind out of visitors before they even enter the gallery. Most people will likely have a difficult time uttering the exhibit’s name. Is it Ten Little … Girls? Ten Little N—– Girls? Ten Little Nigger-exed-out Girls?
Imeh, an art professor at Westfield State University, wants to confront people’s feelings about the slur and the meaning of it — especially because while the epitaph has fallen out of use in the public vernacular, the hatred that boils beneath it has yet to dissipate. Girls puts this into visual perspective.
In a telephone interview, Imeh said his work was inspired by the 1907 Nora Case children’s story, Ten Little N—– Girls, in which ten girls are eliminated, sometimes gruesomely, one by one. He says the disregard for black life demonstrated in Case’s book can be seen today as America shrugs its collective shoulders at the injustice and violence inflicted on black lives.
But you don’t need to know any of this to appreciate Imeh’s art. The Art for the Soul Gallery is lined with tall white canvases buzzing with charcoal and ink of fantastical and haunting images, including one of a headless man playing a cello under a tree without a bow. Nearby, his head lays surrounded by curious toads.
In “Forgotten Girl” (pictured here) a young girl sniffs a bouquet as a dark shadowy figure pulls her toward it and a few bars of music run through her midsection. Like many pieces in this exhibit, the girl is drawn in such a way that emphasizes her innocence and beauty and contrasts mightily with the menacing black-ink amorphous figure that lurks nearby.
Girls is powerful and ferocious in its desire to honor the girls who, for so long, have existed as silly punch lines. With Imeh’s skill, the girls show a dignity that is inescapably relatable. And that may be the most meaningful accomplishment of the exhibit.
Imeh’s Girls series is a work in progress and there will be days where he will work on it in the gallery. For more information check out http://www.art4thesoul.org/exhibits/ .•
