Exhibition Statement by the artist
This exhibition is a little insight into a chapter of a book I am working on about my years living in Harlem, NYC with my spiritual soulmate Gil Scott Heron, who i met in ‘94 Melbourne, Australia while I was completing my undergraduate arts degree.
We connected the way artists do. Through the art. I was inspired by his lyrics to make some art, which I showed him after his Melbourne performance. It was the only time in my life (besides having my children), where i felt an instant spiritual connection with another human being. We were very similar and it was because we were artists. Real artists. We had the same type of right brain thing going on, where everything was the same, gil in a wordsmith sense, me in a visual sense. But the same thing. He wrote, I saw what he wrote, live and direct.
He was inspired by what he saw in my art, and asked me to design his two book covers. I designed them while I was still in college. His two novels, The Vulture, and The Nigger Factory. We stayed in contact by phone and letters and he would often ask me to come to the USA as he had lots I could do for him. Said he needed me. I decided to come in 1997, and I stayed. I am still here and I wish he was too, but he left us. Way too early.
I took well over ten thousand images with my 35mm camera (a canon A1). I developed my negatives in our bathroom on West 151st street in Harlem. Gil became very relaxed with me always having the camera around. It was always there. My photos are not ‘out there’ because I have rarely shown them. Only in the past few years have I been brave enough to revisit these memories, that are beautiful and sad all at the same time. My 35mm negatives have thankfully survived weather extremes in outdoor storage units in a few locations. Sometimes it’s hard to face the things that are hard. I finally feel ready.
I never wrote poetry until I was around gil. Many times he would speak in rhymes, during a normal everyday conversation. So I would rhyme back my response. And he would continue, till it became a sidetracked lyrical game that ended up having nothing to do with the original conversation. We were artists like that. He would sketch funny little drawings made up of symbols that spelled out sentences. I had to figure them out. He wrote me many poems, some too explicit to exhibit, so they will be saved for the book.
We had a beautiful relationship, almost like we were one. Except for the drugs. This was constant, and so the beautiful relationship was not always so. I couldn’t save gil from himself.
Black and Blues was the name of Gil’s first band at Lincoln University with Brian Jackson and Victor Brown. Black and Blues is a fitting description for what gil went through in his lifetime. He is a black man, and he went through a lot of the blues. He tried to heal through writing and music but the blues got him and kept a tight grip. He called what he did ‘bluesology’. And he was the bluesologist living the blues.
I think if he could say something to you today, he would ask everyone to ‘put a little revolution in your life’. He didn’t mean it in the sense of ‘get loud and aggressive’, but to change the way you think, and do some things that are revolutionary. Like make the planet healthier. Listen to Winter in America. He was talking about the environment in the 70’s. ("like the forests buried beneath the highway - never had a chance to grow"... from Winter in America) Or get your friends to vote, you will honor Fannie Lou Hamer for whom he wrote the song "95 South", an amazing woman from Mississippi who he wanted you to never forget. Or if you hear a person being racist to someone, stand up for the one being victimized. His music and words are still very relevant today. Please don’t forget him. He has much to teach today’s younger generation, and he left us with those lessons. As he said, it's always a 'new' song if you've never heard it before. It isn’t just 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' or 'The Bottle'. It’s 'A Very Precious Time'. It’s a 'Song for Bobby Smith'. It’s 'A Lovely Day'. And it is 'Better Days Ahead' - for you and for me. And so much more. Just listen. That’s all he really wanted you to do. Listen and learn.
Monique de LaTour
BIO
Monique de LaTour is an artist from New Zealand who relocated in 1997 to Harlem, NYC. She is currently based on the Sea Islands of South Carolina.
Her early inspirations were musicians she first heard in New Zealand, Gil Scott Heron, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Stevie Wonder, Prince and Nina Simone. The Artists who inspire her are Ras Daniel Heartman, Frida Kahlo, Charles White, Jean Michel Basquiat and Romare Bearden. Although she did not know her father, he was a well known artist and graphic designer in New Zealand. He immigrated from India. On her mother’s side are accomplished artists. When de LaTour was a teenager she marched in the anti-aparthied protests in 1981 in New Zealand. This experience in her teens taught her about injustice in the world, and it is when she began creating art with meaning and purpose. She works in a diverse array of media, with a particular emphasis on socially conscious and sustainable art. She developed programs teaching youth and adults at Harlem Textile Works and The Children’s Art Carnival in NYC for 10 years, and taught middle and high school art in North Carolina for 5 years.
She now focuses on her own art, creating in whatever form it takes to get the message across. Sometimes this is realism, abstract, poetry, textiles, sculpture. She has ‘visions’ for the art. She can see it completed before she starts. For de LaTour, it is like working in reverse. She works from the image in her mind and watches it evolve as she creates it. It does not always stay the same. She is guided by these visions that can often be dreams. The poems come the same way. Like Gil Scott Heron, the art she creates are gifts from the spirits. The ancestors. She pays attention to what the spirits present and honors them by creating what she sees.
De La Tour has exhibited in Harlem, NYC, Melbourne, Australia, Seoul, South Korea, Benin, Africa (Art In Embassies) Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Beaufort, South Carolina. Her most recent solo exhibit at the Beaufort Arts Council in SC, titled Ancient Lines - was a textile exhibit honoring the indigenous people of the Sea Islands.
Her art/textiles/photography are in the collections of Sade, Erykah Badu, guitarist Tony Remy, and many others who appreciate art that speaks to them. She has designed for non-profit organizations, particularly in Harlem, NYC.
To see more of her work visit:
www.beautifulindifference.weebly.com
www.seaislandtextiles.weebly.com
www.jamaicanaturally.com