Firearms
Firearms: by Karis Tanksley
Notes from the Artist
Explanation
A man named Marcos Lich was found having eight pairs of firearms and bullets in his canoe, which he said were sent to him by Joseph Lapique to be sold. He sent them down the river in his canoe with "his negro." He didn't know that this conspiracy was going on. The whites discovered the canoe and the firearms with the slave, and arrested him and called Marcos Lich in to testify. Many of the testimonies in the conspiracy include plans to seize firearms, bullets, and gunpowder, so the paranoia over this incident makes sense. All the same, the fact that the slave and the owner of the guns were in fact not involved in the conspiracy at all says much of the investigation of this conspiracy. A narrative was created over a collection of incidents, many that ended up not connected to each other at all.In this picture, I have taken another artist's rendering of an armed slave from the 1811 slave uprising and pasted him onto this scene. I chose him as a model for his position and how he holds a musket. I also chose a model from outside of this conspiracy because there are no visual representations left to historians of the slaves accused in this conspiracy: only the transcript from the court. The closest in time that I could find was this slave from 1811. I think it also adds a layer of future rebellion, besides suggesting that since someone who was not involved in this conspiracy at all is pasted on, perhaps this scene did not legitimately take place in the way the court seeks to portray it.
Materials used
Background: cardboard, paper bag, paint, marker.Shanty: felt
River: magazine clippings
Grass: toothpicks, markers
Guns: toothpicks, markers, pictures of period muskets
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