Back to Artist

Climbing for Power

Lonnie Holley
  • LH - Climbing for Power - Master Image

    Click on image to enlarge

    Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio
1996
Found wood and found metal
67 x 21 x 43 inches
Collection of
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco museum purchase American Art Trust Fund and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

We got to have the power to communicate, through the radio, the telephone, telegraph, through the railroads . . . but, every time we try to reach the power, somebody cuts us off. It was made out of half of a ladder and a telegram pole that was next to the railroad tracks, materials that are the truth about our life and how we communicate. When things are in such dire need of truth about African Americans and their art, people are playing dangerous games by inserting ignorance into the picture. Ignorance is the power-cutter.