Quinn Hunter: When the Block Was Long
On view May 12 – June 24, 2023
Dual Exhibition Opening Friday, May 12, 2023, 5:30 – 8 PM
When The Block Was Long investigates the systematic destruction of Black space in the United States in the early to mid 20th century using archived images that capture these spaces before they were altered and divided and in the cases of Detroit’s Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, neighborhoods were completely razed. The fallout of the promise the North offered many Black Southerners during the Great Migration has led to the Detroit of the current day with evident legacies of red and green lining, white flight, and divestment. This series of works reveals the continual forced migration of an entire community. Layering history, geography, social relations, and the present, this exhibition places truths beside each other to create an image that is wholly in its representation of Detroit and America. While the work is honest and painful, it also demonstrates resilience and creating anew. The space in the African diasporas is permanent — it can be entered, but one can never leave. It is finding paradise over, and over, and over again.
Quinn Alexandria Hunter is a sculptor, performance artist, and educator based in Detroit, MI. She is interested in the erasure of history from physical space and how the contemporary uses of these spaces impact the way we, as a culture, understand the past. Hunter’s practice contends with the false narratives of a romanticized past and interrupts these myths by placing truth next to them. Quinn completed her MFA from Ohio University. She has been awarded residencies at the Chautauqua School of Art (2020), Wayne State University (2020-21), and received the 2019 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from International Sculpture Center.
More about Quinn Hunter here.
Quinn Hunter is a recipient of The Sculpture Center’s Revealed Early Career Exhibition Series.
