MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Souvenir I (1997) portrays the domestic interior of the home of Ruth and Albert Glover, Marshall's wife's great-aunt and uncle, a room of a typical African-American household in the 1960s and ‘70s. In the centre stands a woman with golden wings, like an angel, inviting us to come in and pay respects to those pictured within. Everyone portrayed or mentioned in this series died between 1959 and 1970. In the upper border he has placed photographs of faces with wings, just like the cherubs seen in a baroque or renaissance painting. They are portraits of political figures who fought in the movement for civil rights and stood up for their beliefs, but who never attained the wide recognition of Martin Luther King for example, as their activities were often more problematic for the majority, even though their contributions were significant.