David Hammons, "Prayer", 1969
The body prints are deeply rooted within the history of the Black arts movement, prevalent in Los Angeles during the 1960’s and 70’s. Noonan argues that these prints can be read with more meaning if they are considered in the period in which they were created, as they ‘include signs drawn from the discourse of Blackness’, which was being questioned at the time. They also help to represent how ‘identity was always mediated by language, discourse, and the authority of the Other’ . This specific artwork, ‘Prayer’ emphasises and dramatizes this idea that a ‘racial Other alienates the subject’, as the artwork medium is so raw. The print itself is so defined by the physical lines in Hammons' skin, hair and clothing, that it confronts the viewer head on, making it inescapable to question the piece and consider its meaning. Consequently, this gives an immediacy to the artwork which Cooks argues shows the ‘interconnectedness between the personal issues and the political’. For instance, the physical presence of a black-man's body in the artwork, with his hands in a prayer as he looks upwards, wanting and hopeful, alludes to the political change, the artist himself (the figure in the artwork) wanted. This is emphasised by the ‘ghostly’ appearance of the figure in the print, as it is almost as if there would be more solidness and definition to the form of the body’s outlines if issues that the Black Community were dealing with - such as racism, prejudice and targeted aggression - were alleviated and removed from their world.