David Hammons, "Prayer", 1969
The figure was achieved through the use of Hammons’s own body: as described by Connie Rogers Tilton and Lindsay Charlwood, “To create these works, Hammons literally used his own body as a printing plate - coating his skin or the printing paper with margarine and then pressing his greased body onto the printing paper.” Hammons thus had to intimately interact with his materials in order to create his body prints; he gives the works a "hauntingly physical presence." Due to the direct interaction between body and paper, one can note the wrinkles and creases of Hammons's sweatshirt, the texture of his beard, and the lines of his hands; there is a direct focus on the body, and the black body in particular. The figure in “Prayer” is awkwardly positioned: his neck appears to be missing as his head rests directly upon his shoulders. It looks as though he is sinking into his own frame; his body is literally shrunken. The top of his head, where the hood is place, looks abnormally large - as does his back and upper shoulders. Tilton and Charlwood note, “Viewers of these images are confronted with distorted but readable representations of the body, often appearing frozen in profile or with entire expanses of flesh unraveled onto the printing surface."
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. Scholar Jennifer 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. During this period, there were many stereotypes and beliefs surrounding the African American Community, that were being broken down and scrutinised due to their ignorance and insensitivity. This was a time of change. Communities were coming together in order to break down barriers between cultures, remove ridiculous ideologies surrounding particular groups and stop discrimination. An example of this is the exhibition we are currently discussing, the' Black Art: The Black Experience' Exhibition held at Occidental College. The college was and still is a place of learning that attempts to create an atmosphere of inclusion and acceptance of people from all races and lifestyles.
These Body Prints also help to represent how ‘identity was always mediated by language, discourse, and the authority of the Other’. By this, it is suggested that certain histories and beliefs surrounding minority groups are often written by those who are not directly involved with these cultures, and therefore are often wrong or absurd. However, in this case of this artwork - 'Prayer', due to the artist himself being African American, and the subject matter also expressing the plights that African Americans deal with, we can see this as a more honest and realistic presentation of the Black Community. It does not hesitate to disregard or ignore any aspect of life that would make other communities look bad - it is unbiased.
This specific artwork, ‘Prayer’ emphasizes and dramatizes this idea that a ‘racial other alienates the subject’, due to the immediacy of its medium and style. The physical lines that make up Hammons's skin, hair and clothing, define the artwork, creating a sense of urgency and rawness that confronts the viewer head on, encouraging them to question the piece and consider its meaning. Consequently, the Art Historian Cooks, argues that this element of 'Prayer' also emphasises the ‘interconnectedness between the personal issues [of the artist] and the political’issues of the time. For instance, as the figure stands, with his hands cupped in prayer looking upwards, wanting and hopeful, it not only refers to the political change, the artist himself (the figure in the artwork) wanted, but also the personal issues he was experiencing (that he did not want to exist) caused by prejudice and discrimination, from incorrect beliefs people had surrounding his race.
Another aspect of the of this artwork which emphasises these political and personal issues, is the ‘ghostly’ appearance of the figure. The lines lack any true solidness or definition, which suggestively represent the struggles that the African American Community were experiencing. If, in the case that these issues such as racism, prejudice and targeted aggression, were non existent or eliminated, it is possible that the figures outlines could have been more prominent and obvious, in turn giving the man a greater boldness and strength. It is also important to note here that the artwork is only in Black and white, there is an absence of colour. This suggests that materially and metaphorically the artwork is about a binary; a presence and absence. It is ironic that, what we can physically see in the artwork, represents metaphorically what society lacks.
