Tony Bingham

Alabama Fellow for Visual Arts

ARTIST STATEMENT

Who will speak for my people, if not the artist? Who will help those who are outside of the art dialog, to understand the creative potential they possess? I'm an African-American artist and professor at Miles College in Birmingham. Using organic, repurposed and cast-off materials, I make art that tells the story of my cast-off people.

I use art making processes to explore the legacy and spirit of my ancestors. This body of work investigates the history of rural African American people through themes of spirituality, celebration, trauma and rebirth. Art inspires conversations that lead to physical manifestations of shared ideas and dreams. In a project that brought together descendants of the enslaved and descendants of their enslavers. Bearing Witness : Praise House - Sun Shadows evolved.

The project collected stories from the descendants of enslaved people who shared memories of their spiritual origins. Bearing Witness, is a site specific sculpture that offers a place for remembrance for both Black and White Wallace descendants at the 1841 Wallace Plantation in Harpersville, Al.

A sacred image of a Black family, was transformed into steel cut engraving, allowing sunlight and shadow to move within the sculpture.

ARTIST BIO

Tony M. Bingham is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Birmingham, AL. He holds degrees from Antioch College (B.A. in Communications), Goddard College (M.A. in Film and Community Media), and Georgia State University (MFA). Bingham’s research and resulting work explore communities and public space, particularly historic sites of enslaved, extractive, or industrialized labor throughout Alabama. Bingham's sculptures, photography, and audio work reference unmarked burial sites, vernacular headstones, and explore African-American lifeways and memorial practices. Bingham teaches humanities and studio art at Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama.