MASP

Melvin Edwards started his series of sculptures Lynch Fragments in 1963, during the civil rights movement struggles in the United States. These works alluded to the hideous practice of the lynching of African-American black men and women between slavery’s abolishment, in 1863, and the 1960s. Gradually, they encompassed other references to characters, events, and places linked to the Afro-Atlantic history, whether it was in Africa or in the diaspora. In Palmares (1988), the artist evokes the Brazilian quilombo, a large settlement formed by people of African origin who escaped and resisted slavery in the 16th and 18th centuries. Located in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco and with a population of thousands, Palmares is considered the most important quilombo in Brazil. It had Ganga Zumba (circa 1630–1678) and Zumbi (1655–1695) as their main leaders. He produced the work during the centenary of the abolishment of slavery in Brazil. Edwards visited the country twice in the 1980s, alongside his companion, the poet, activist and performance artist Jayne Cortez (1934–2012), and went to literary gatherings in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Using agricultural and industrial objects in his sculptures is owed to their formal qualities and their ability to transmit to the spectator a narrative and a sense of place, referring to, in this case, to the cultural importance of the people of African descent who were enslaved and fought for freedom in colonial Brazil.

— Rodrigo Moura

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