<I>Black Room with Bitches Brew</I>
date: label: Date
content: 2010
name: label: Created by
content: Renée Stout, American, born 1958
label: Subject of
content: Miles Davis, American, 1926 - 1991
notes: label: Caption
content: Renée Stout is best known for her multifaceted approach to art, making use of a variety of materials and media. Her innovative incorporation of storytelling, use of the alter ego, investigation into West African spiritual traditions, and allusions to popular culture form a type of environment that is both real and imaginary. Her work evokes personal as well as collective cultural memory.
label: Caption
content: The title and objects in Stout’s installation conjure phrases such as black magic, black as midnight, black as tar, and black is beautiful, and reference themes related to gender, strength, power, nourishment, poison, and creation. They also play on Miles Davis’s innovative and influential jazz album Bitches Brew, whose cover art featured similar diametrically linked themes such as light/dark, good/evil, white/black, male/female, and earth/heaven.
label: Description
content: The "cross" (.3) element of an installation artwork. This cross is made from three (3) carved and hand worked segments of wood. One (1) vertical piece of wood forms the stipe. The vertical segment is secured with metal screws and wood pegs inside a crossbeam made from two (2) horizontal pieces of wood. A thick metal wire attaches to the ends of both the left and right arms of the cross, forming an arc that curves behind the top of the stipe. A cracked mirror is affixed at the upper center of the stipe. At the proper-right side of the stipe, to the side of the mirror, is a metal plate with three (3) pegs inserted inside. The pegs have a similar appearance to tuning pegs used on string instruments.
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: African diaspora
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Hoodoo
label: Topic
content: Religion
label: Topic
content: Women
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2013.148.3
objectType: label: Type
content: assemblages (sculpture)
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Renée Stout
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: wood, metal, glass
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D: 19 × 11 × 2 7/8 in. (48.3 × 27.9 × 7.3 cm)