by Bella Erakko
Protest art has a long history. Even Van Gogh, the vastly popular Impressionist artist, veered away from socially acceptable paintings to record in stark reality the world of poverty-stricken miners and farmers. Today’s protest art in America focuses on “the other,” however that is defined.
Enter Faye Dant, Founder and Curator of Jim’s Journey museum, and this month’s guest artist at the Alliance Art Gallery with her expressive “Freedom Means…” collages. “I have been protesting since I was twelve years old. My cousin and I stayed with our Peoria, Illinois grandmother during the summer. Peoria had a very active NAACP, and my aunties would take us to protest marches about fair pay, racial equality—all sorts of things.”
Faye would one day couple her love of collage with protest art. But in the beginning … it was modifying greeting cards for her kids. “I wanted the cards to be something they could relate to, with images that looked like them. I even spread diversity. I did this for my non-Black friends.”
Eventually she began to create framed art and memory boxes for special events. The recipients often kept the boxes out for everyone to see, though her practical husband kept a gun in one. He explained … it was handy.
She recently found a photograph of her mom and aunties after her grandfather passed. They had posed in front of her grandfather’s beloved automobile. He loved the car; they loved him. “I put new clothes on them, and placed his house in the background, and called it “Sisters” in their honor. She recently finished “Dreams Come True,” a collage of her granddaughter’s drawings hanging in an art gallery.
But for her personally, one dream from her Peoria childhood persists … racial justice.
Today she creates powerful, dynamic photomontages, using a large collection of photos of family and friends, mostly from the Hannibal community. The images are compelling … and inviting. Faye Dant admits, “I tend to be pretty straight forward with people; collages allow me to do things a little softer.”
What lies ahead? She envisions a wall mural honoring contributions to Hannibal by its Black citizens. She plans on using the same photo collage technique, only larger. One thing can be sure—Faye Dant’s images bring heart, mind, and consciousness into every card, memory box, 2D art … and hopefully one day, mural, to life.
An opening reception will be held on Saturday June 11, 2022 from 4 until 7:00 with an artist talk at 6:00.