African Stand

David Hammons has placed masks that are recognisably “African” in a plastic can with black paint smears. The masks prop up a stand from which a pan holding further masks is hung. The title could refer to “taking a stand”. But stand also means a market stall or an exhibition cabinet. The allusion to the colonial past, when Africans were enslaved and sold as commodities is obvious. Hammons began working with art and social criticism in the late 1960s, after studying art in Los Angeles. Throughout his career, he has explored themes such as “blackness”. In early conceptual works, he expressed his aversion to the commerce of the art scene, but since the market expanded in the 2000s, Hammons sees manipulations of pricing as part of his process.