Photo Essay: The Faith Ringgold Society

CHANGE: THE 100 POUNDS WEIGHT LOSS STORY QUILT & PERFORMANCE

Can't believe how long its been since I posted but it is necessary to explain that I have in the interim really transformed the way the work on Soul Pictures is going. I did two public presentations of work from Soul Pictures, the first at Broadway Housing at the Dorothy Day Residence, which was composed of about 130 images about the life and work of Faith Ringgold. I used the powerpoint application, which I have never really mastered. Also, in the process, I poured water into my laptop causing the memory board to have a breakdown (I think that is what my computer person called it).

My computer person is Linda Conoval who has a lovely little helpful business called Mac Solutions in downtown Englewood. She is also an artist and a photographer and somebody who is as fascinated as I am by film and by the life's work of Faith RInggold. She is my first real New Jersey friend who actually lives and feels comfortable in New Jersey.

In any case, overcoming great difficulties, I presented an extended powerpoint focused upon CHANGE: THE 100 POUND WEIGHT LOSS QUILT AND PERFORMANCE, which Faith composed in the period from 1987 through 1991. In the first of the story quilt, she constructs photographic lithographs of each of the decades her life in order to document the progress of her body and her process of weight gain.

This is the first photographic panel with pictures of Faith as a child in the 30s when she was
quite thin as a result of the rigorous diet her Mom (Mme. Willi Posey) put her on in order to control her allergies and her asthma.

These are two details from the first panel. My talk was composed of an illustrated lecture explaining the relationship of this work to Mom's entire career and work. I did a second talk as well, but this time focused in particular on the years from 1978 through 1983, which was includes the years immediately following the death of her mother, and which were transformative for Ringgold's life and career. Yes, she lost the weight and gradually hit upon a new arrangement whereby food would no longer be controlled entirely by her impulses but there were many other developments woven into the story of this quilt, including a change in style, materials and focus. It is a moment of great revelation in her life and mine. Of course, I was there.

In the process of doing these talks, I was so impressed with the audience they drew that I decided I need to set up someway of continuing this feedback in perpetuity. So I founded the Faith Ringgold Society to study her life and work primarily on facebook. Yet I am painfully aware that I know many people whom I cherish who don't make time in their lives for facebook. It is afterall largely a careerist network. In the meanwhile, I've seen my neice Baby Faith who has helped me to construct a website for The Society. The address is http://www.faithringgoldsociety.org.

If you wish to be a member in this mostly research oriented society, please follow the link to register and sign up for our activities and publications.