An interplay of vibrant colors animates the contemporary artwork in the exhibition Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe, on display at the Tufts University Art Galleries through December 8. The bright, cheerful colors rising among shadowy tones in many of Jackson’s photographs, videos, paintings, sculpture, hand-knitted textiles, and mixed-media collages in the show appear to belie their serious subjects, which explore issues of social justice and the failures and hard-won triumphs of the democratic system in the United States, particularly as they impact communities of color.
But this apparent contradiction is not as it may at first seem.
While the show reflects the artist’s extensive research into the history of racial segregation in America, Jackson blends this subject matter with an exploration into 20th-century abstract artist and educator Josef Albers’ theories of “vibrating boundaries,” an optical effect where the edges of two colors appear to vibrate where they meet, and how colors appear to change in proximity to other colors. Jackson’s combination of research and technique results in dazzling color studies that enliven the narrative of social struggle in America.
Tomashi Jackson. Courtesy of the Pilar Corrias Gallery.
Photo: Dan Watkins
Born in Houston in 1980, raised in Los Angeles, and now living in Cambridge, Jackson conducted much of her historical research as a graduate student at MIT before earning a second advanced degree from Yale. Only a few years later, her artwork, increasingly recognized for its complexity and depth, was included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial of American Art. It has since become part of the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
In Jackson’s C-print photograph “Alteronce in Hannah,” the figure of a young Black man sits in profile before abstract blocks of orange, green, and magenta. A hand-knitted cowl, woven in vivid shades that interact with the hues in the background, covers his head. His hidden face and static posture shift the focus to the dynamic interplay among the colors. The geometrical simplicity of this composition alludes to Albers’ painting “Homage to the Square,” where blocks of color create an optical illusion of receding and advancing planes, exemplifying Albers’ theory. At the same time, the photograph begs the question, why doesn’t the young man reveal his face in an image otherwise resplendent with such lively color? When Jackson composed and shot this image in 2014, the racially motivated killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2013 had begun to profoundly influence her work. In this context, the young man’s reticence resonates with a sense of social awareness and self-protection.
“Alteronce in Hannah.”
Photo: Mel Taing
In her 2016 video collage “Vibrating Boundaries (Law of the Land) (Self Portrait as Tatyana, Dajerria & Sandra), 1963–2015,” Jackson explores Albers’ idea that the interaction of two high-contrast colors causes visual tension. Here, the artist applies this concept to two incidents of violent racism—the 2015 death of Sandra Bland, 28, who was found hanging in her cell three days after being arrested for a traffic stop; and the pool party, hosted by a Black family living in a mostly white upper-middle-class neighborhood in McKinney, Texas, where a police officer brutally restrained 15-year-old party guest Dajerria Becton, who was clad only in a swimsuit, and drew his handgun on unarmed witnesses. In the video, Jackson and fellow artists reenact the positions Bland, Becton, and the pool party’s host, another young, Black teenager, Tatyana Rhodes, were forced into while being physically overpowered.
“In many of these works, Jackson articulates the chaotic nature of being embedded within a system that is working both for and, often violently, against you, as a Black person. She maps out an experience of existing within legal, historic, and social frameworks that are complex and yet intertwined in unexpected ways over decades, if not centuries,” says Dina Deitsch, director and curator of the Tufts University Art Galleries. Deitsch organized the presentation of the show at Tufts, its second stop on a national tour. Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe, which originated at MCA Denver, will next travel to the ICA San Francisco.
A still from the video “Vibrating Boundaries (Law of the Land) (Self Portrait as Tatyana, Dajerria & Sandra), 1963–2015.”
Photo: Mel Taing
In her 2016 mixed media on gauze collage “The School House Rock (Brown, et al. v Board of Education of Topeka) (Bolling v Sharpe (District of Columbia)),” Jackson layers archival images related to the two cases that resulted in the outlawing of racial segregation. Highlighting the lives of those working toward and most affected by the outcomes, Jackson arranges the material so that it “operates as an abstract painting in which the apparent chaos of these assemblages suddenly starts to coalesce through formal qualities like color and texture,” says Deitsch. “For Tomashi, the tensions of color and material become, in many ways, a parable for the experience of race in this country.”
“The School House Rock (Brown, et al. v Board of Education of Topeka) (Bolling v Sharpe (District of Columbia)).”
Photo: Mel Taing
Jackson’s 2022 assemblage “Across the Universe (Frontlash)” is comprised of acrylic; marble dust the artist collected from Colorado and Athens, Greece (the birthplace of democracy); and paper bags on canvas, all attached to a wood awning structure. With a palette of black, gray, white, and orange, the piece features painted halftone lines that form an image of an audience rising to standing ovation after the singer Nina Simone performed “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black” at Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1969. Strips of orange vinyl depict a crowd gathered at the University of Michigan in 1964 to hear President Lyndon B. Johnston outline his vision for the ambitions “Great Society” policies that aspired to end poverty and racial injustice. The title of the work (and the show), Across the Universe, references the eponymous Beatles’ “meditation on love, the divine, and cosmic openness,” and its gallery label points out. It also speaks to the limitless possibilities Jackson is reaching for in her historical studies, artistic techniques, and hopes for the future.
“Across the Universe (Frontlash).”
Photo: Mel Taing
An evolving vision
The exhibition is divided into four chronological sections that follow the evolution of Jackson’s work over the past ten years. “Early Works” features pieces made from 2014 to 2016 during her studies at Yale School of Art, where she combined her investigations into color studies with a study of legal cases. The works in “Vibrating Boundaries,” created from 2016 to 2019, focus on historical comparisons of multigenerational stories of activism and discrimination. “Recent Works,” made from 2019 to 2020, draws from research Jackson conducted at MIT on voting rights, education, labor, land rights, and legislation. Finally, five music videos, created from 2019 to 2023, feature Jackson’s alter ego “Tommy Tonight” and Tommy’s boy band D’Talentz. Their lip-synched songs explore themes of love, liberation, and the complexities of living in a participatory democracy, completing the show on a hopeful note to reflect upon this history, so important to remember, in a new light.