Glenn Ligon

While on the London trip at the Tate modern I noticed a piece of work by Glenn Ligon. It was a neon sign painted black saying 'America'. I was intrigued  and wanted to find out more about the meaning of this work. It's so simplistic, yet has so many possibilities of what it could be about.

I decided to use this piece of work for my CPS presentation about London. Ligon usually investigates the social, linguistic and political construction of race, gender and sexuality, and the representation of the individual in relationship to culture and history. This piece comments on the national self-fixation of the United States and the position of African Americans within the nation. He conveyed this by painting the glass tubed with black paint, creating a bold statement as its taking away the glamour, brightness and flash out of America.

I then found out that this one piece was part of a series, with three different neon lights, with all different meanings but still conveying the arrogance and darkness that America has become.