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200 Women of African Descent

Photo: Paul Macapia

200 Women of African Descent

1997

Marita Dingus

American, born 1956

Slavery is a scar on human civilization, and it is still rare to see the victims of it commemorated individually. The women here assert a shocking reminder of how cruel humans can be. Marita Dingus created them after a visit to Elmina Castle in Ghana, which was the world’s largest port for the transatlantic slave trade for centuries. She was shown rooms where 200 women and 400 men were held in dungeons before being shipped to the Americas. The atrocity of this history led Dingus to spend one and a half years carefully remembering one person at a time.

As she said, “I was raised a Catholic, so I grew up praying the rosary. So, the whole idea of repetition as prayer is something I understand. Making these figures meant a lot of repetition. I used discarded materials because I see people of African descent being used during the era of slavery and then discarded.”

Mixed media
variable
Gift of the artist and Francine Seders Gallery
2009.54
Provenance: The artist; collection of Francine Seders Gallery
Photo: Paul Macapia
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Francine Seders Gallery, Boundless Spirits, June 1994.

Marylhurst, Oregon, Marylhurst College, The Art Gym, Endowment: Refitting II, Feb. 1995.

Seattle, Washington, CoCA, KunstKabinet, August, 1995.

Hovikodden, Norway, Henie Onstad Kundsenter, 2003.

Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art Museum, About Faces, May 2004.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Inaugural Installation, May 2007 - Feb. 2008.

Bellingham, Washington, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Show of Hands: Northwest Women Artists 1890-2010, Apr. 23 - Aug. 8, 2010.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.
Published ReferencesHackett, Regina, KunstKabinet review, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 14, 1995

Ishikawa, Chiyo et al., Seattle Art Museum Downtown, Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 2007, illus. p. 57

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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