32 / 32
Image by Dero Sanford.
Summer Breeze
“If the color black had a sound, what would it sound like?”
—Paul Stephen Benjamin
Paul Stephen Benjamin asks us to reflect on the historical and cultural significance of the color black as it relates to survival and resistance. In Summer Breeze, he combines the 1939 Billie Holiday protest song “Strange Fruit” with Jill Scott’s 2015 rendition of the same song. Their haunting melody, mourning the lynching of Black Americans, is accompanied by footage of a little girl on a swing. [81]
ArtistPaul Stephen Benjamin(b. 1966)
Date2018
MediumLooped three-channel video installation, color, sound; televisions and cords
Dimensions120 x 120 in. (304.8 x 304.8 cm)
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2021.1
ClassificationInstallation
Provenancepurchased from the Artist by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2021
On ViewNo
This artwork's face covers about 13× the area of a standard movie poster.Drawn to the same scale.
