< Return to Video

Abigail DeVille: "Light of Freedom" | Art21 "Extended Play"

  • 0:07 - 0:10
    ABIGAIL DEVILLE:
    "If there is no struggle there is no progress."
  • 0:14 - 0:19
    "Those who profess to favor freedom and yet
    depreciate agitation,"
  • 0:19 - 0:23
    "are men who want crops without plowing up
    the ground,"
  • 0:25 - 0:28
    "they want rain without thunder and lightning."
  • 0:31 - 0:35
    "They want the ocean without the awful roar
    of its many waters."
  • 0:38 - 0:42
    Frederick Douglass, August 4th, 1857.
  • 0:42 - 0:46
    [Abigail DeVille: "Light of Freedom"]
  • 0:56 - 0:58
    [Madison Square Park]
  • 1:01 - 1:05
    Initially, I found the
    Frederick Douglass quote,
  • 1:05 - 1:09
    and that was just me
    thinking about a way to
  • 1:09 - 1:12
    quickly contextualize what happened this summer.
  • 1:14 - 1:17
    I think it was the images that he painted.
  • 1:17 - 1:20
    I just kept thinking about the rolling waves,
  • 1:21 - 1:24
    and just the waves of people that
    hooked each other, arm in arm,
  • 1:24 - 1:28
    and protested in the face of, potentially,
    death,
  • 1:29 - 1:31
    through this pandemic,
  • 1:31 - 1:34
    to fight for whatever this nation
    actually pretends
  • 1:34 - 1:37
    that it was founded or based on.
  • 2:00 - 2:04
    It's a commemoration of the Black Lives Matter
    protests and movement,
  • 2:04 - 2:10
    and the Black lives here in this continent
    for 400 years.
  • 2:13 - 2:15
    As I was placing the arms,
  • 2:15 - 2:19
    thinking about the kinds of ways in which
    everything could have been so different,
  • 2:19 - 2:23
    that there have been opportunities and moments
    that have been missed,
  • 2:23 - 2:28
    cyclically in New York history and in the
    nation's history as a whole:
  • 2:29 - 2:30
    moments for progress
  • 2:30 - 2:36
    or moments that potentially the playing field
    was going to be evened out.
  • 2:41 - 2:44
    I had a really awesome fourth grade teacher,
  • 2:44 - 2:46
    her name was Mrs. Hammond.
  • 2:46 - 2:47
    She was spectacular.
  • 2:47 - 2:50
    She really made history come alive for us.
  • 2:50 - 2:54
    She played for us Martin Luther King's
    "I Have A Dream" speech on vinyl,
  • 2:54 - 2:58
    and you could hear a pin drop in that classroom.
  • 2:58 - 3:02
    I just remember holding my best friend's hand
    underneath the table the entire time
  • 3:02 - 3:05
    just being so moved by his words
  • 3:05 - 3:07
    and the power of his words.
  • 3:07 - 3:10
    She planted a seed, for sure,
  • 3:12 - 3:16
    of thinking about how we're all participants
    within history.
  • 3:18 - 3:22
    Seeing images of the Statue of Liberty's hand
    with torch in the park,
  • 3:22 - 3:24
    I was just like, "Okay, now I can stop looking."
  • 3:24 - 3:25
    "This is it."
  • 3:25 - 3:27
    "It's everything that I'm thinking about--"
  • 3:27 - 3:29
    "everything I want to talk about."
  • 3:30 - 3:34
    The torch and the hand of the Statue of Liberty
  • 3:34 - 3:39
    sat in this park for six years
    from 1876 to 1882
  • 3:39 - 3:43
    while they were trying to fundraise
    for the pedestal
  • 3:43 - 3:45
    for the Statue of Liberty.
  • 3:50 - 3:52
    I love scaffolding.
  • 3:52 - 3:56
    It's ubiquitous here in New York City.
  • 3:57 - 4:00
    Things have always been constructed
    and torn down.
  • 4:00 - 4:05
    This idea of freedom is under continual construction--
  • 4:05 - 4:07
    and reconstruction--
  • 4:07 - 4:09
    from generation to generation.
  • 4:13 - 4:16
    Thinking about bells being another symbol
    of liberty,
  • 4:16 - 4:20
    but then encaged within this torch,
  • 4:20 - 4:22
    that it actually can't really make a sound.
  • 4:24 - 4:27
    That also is the fuel of the torch,
  • 4:27 - 4:30
    and also blue fire being the hottest fire
    that there is.
  • 4:39 - 4:43
    Society has tried to separate us or define
    us by our bodies
  • 4:43 - 4:45
    or where we live--
  • 4:45 - 4:49
    or socioeconomic class, education, everything.
  • 4:54 - 4:57
    And then how collectively we can
    link our arms together
  • 4:57 - 5:00
    and assert something else.
  • 5:08 - 5:11
    I think making that work,
  • 5:11 - 5:14
    it was, in a way, like a prayer or a hope
  • 5:14 - 5:16
    for something for the future--
  • 5:16 - 5:20
    to bring names from the past into the present.
  • 5:20 - 5:23
    And then to continue the descension--
  • 5:23 - 5:28
    to pass the baton to honor the collective.
Title:
Abigail DeVille: "Light of Freedom" | Art21 "Extended Play"
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Extended Play" series
Duration:
05:50

English subtitles

Revisions