Visual Lineages
Installation view of Reverberations: Lineages in Design History. Photo by Sebastian Bach. Courtesy of Ford Foundation Gallery.
Text and dialogue play a key role in understanding culture through linear, traditional learning structure, but Reverberations: Lineages in Design History explore beyond the expected. It is a modicum of learning materials mixed with interactive elements, proving that visual design patterns can be viable tools for understanding how design fits into our lives across generations. Its classroom of works reimagines the medium of protest and dissent, from typical motifs of picket signs to the hints of oppression used in traditional woven Māori panels to the digital reliquary of BIPOC design history, a series of online lectures by Polymode that inspired the exhibition. While this may sound academically rigorous, what you’ll find inside the gallery’s quaint walls is actually a collection that spans lifetimes and speaks for itself, which it now has to. There are no attributions or captions posted next to any of the art pieces—a move that subverts the traditional gallery structure and forces viewers to make connections and absorb each work’s visual impact independently, putting poetry, textile, graphic design, and 3D-printed ceramic all on the same playing field.
At first glance, the simple text on vinyl banners from Anna Tsouhlarakis (I REALLY LIKE THE WAY YOU RESPECT NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS, The Native Guide Project, 2019) and Alisha B. Wormsley (There Are Black People In The Future, 2012) might seem like a pair of platitudes thrown across a hostile Thanksgiving dinner table. Despite their obvious similarities, their conceptions are entirely separate, and the intention, according to Tsouhlarakis, evokes the pedagogy of a responsive classroom from her brief stint as a second-grade teacher. The idea hinges on positive reinforcement, even subconscious placebo, that both artists are using to propel their message forward. “I love that kind of double-edged sword that they have two different types of meaning,” said Tsouhlarakis. If you already believe these things to be true, why would the signs offend you?
The brilliance in Reverberations is how the strength of each piece multiplies in tandem with its neighbors on the wall. The positive reinforcement from the banners beckons a brighter future, and yet below them, subverting all that positivity, is Bahia Shehab’s A Thousand Times No, a stenciled graffiti onto the gallery walls, presenting an unflinching, resolute “no” through different designs in Arabic calligraphy. The collection of resistances consists of those against killing, war, colonialism, fascism and more, a deliberate and definitive wall of resilience.
Brooklyn, 2024. Wael Morcos (Beirut, Lebanon, b. 1986, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY). Jacquard Woven Blanket: 100% Cotton (25% recycled). Courtesy of the Artist. Photo Sebastian Bach.
Calligraphy, perhaps the most familiar textual design, is employed again in subtle woven typography by Lebanese American graphic designer Wael Morcos. The word Brooklyn “interposes and changes direction in fluid dimensions,” a thematic nod to the idea that our timeline of understanding culture and belonging is in constant flux. The patterns of our ancestors, here the elegant Arabic font, are integral to digesting the fabric of our own lives. Similarly, Ziddi Msangi utilizes cotton and text in creating My Strength Is My Blood / Nguvu yangu iko katika damu yangu (2021) to call upon a more tragic use of this tool, alluding to communication within the slave trade. The printed cloth is made in reference to an East African Kanga, preserving its history as a resource and disseminating its narrative for our society.
John Philip Sousa, 1930s. Mary Sully (Standing Rock Reservation,1896-1963, lived and worked in Standing Rock Reservation, New York, NY, and Omaha, NE). Colored pencil, ink, crayon, paint. Courtesy of The Mary Sully Foundation. Photo Sebastian Bach.
Cataloging the work of ancestors is a task that rewards beyond the language of text, and transposes into artistic practices like the portraits of historically prominent figures by Mary Sully. Sully’s abstracted work combines Native American design forms with a geometrically focused personality of the subject, overlapping her personal history with the subject—here, famous American composer John Philip Sousa. The result is a work that in its kaleidoscopic nature feels contemporary, yet calls to natural patterns and organic designs in each section of this disjointed triptych. Her work is a standout at the intersection of design and the future.
In the Risograph book Ruta de la amistad, the twenty-two sculptures from the 1968 Olympics hosted in Mexico City purport that the existence of art within a country can breathe that culture’s life force into it. MJ Balvanera’s work explores the porosity between the physical manifestation of these sculptures and the spiritual influence in their integration into the landscape. “They feel equally Mexican. The photographs and the text in combination are trying to question what makes them feel so Mexican, even though they're representing other countries,” said Balvanera. In her other book, Relatos de Santa María, a bright green field guide to medicinal herbology, the women of Santa María Totoltepec have contributed cultural practices and references from their native topography. “The act of writing down their knowledge, wanting it to be passed down, is what's really powerful about the whole experience,” said Balvanera. The accessibility of Risograph as a medium and its visual buoyancy portend a richer contextualization of Indigenous Mexican culture and inspire direct political action for its readers.
Installation view of Reverberations: Lineages in Design History. Photo by Sebastian Bach. Courtesy of Ford Foundation Gallery.
“Let me rip this all apart,” said Pilar Castillo, Belizean artist behind Dual Citizenship: US and CARICOM Passports. Her counterfeit passports seek to decolonialize the design of paper documents, whose fragility dictate the existence and class of citizens not just in the United States but globally. In Belize and much of the Caribbean, tourism is the leading economic sector, and “it is an economy of servitude. It’s all in line with the same doctrine of oppression, exploitation, colonialism, and imperialism,” said Castillo. The work deconstructs these anesthetized visions of citizenship by replacing the attributes of typical documentation with the hostile buzzwords we’ve come to associate with immigration; “alien,” “foreigner” and “suspect” all adorn the inner jacket. The accompanying CARICOM passport is an adept counter-narrative, rejoicing in the authenticity of Caribbean citizenship and taking pride in visions for a more equitable future.
Reverberations is an homage to the rich lineage of its contributors and a method of healing the wounds stymied by oppressive forces worldwide attempting to bury their atrocities. While the battle for understanding our relationships within an expansive physical and digital landscape is still young, this assemblage is a reminder that the tools of ancestors, for survival, celebration, or documentation, are still just as powerful as they once were.
Reverberations: Lineages in Design History is on view at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice until May 3, 2025.
