WGS INTERSECTIONS AT THE HALSEY
AFFILIATE FACULTY DISCUSS ARTIST LA VAUGHN BELLE
WRITTEN BY WGS EDITORIAL CONTENT PRODUCER INTERN, SOFIA WILKINSON (she/her)
La Vaughn Belle: When The Land Meets The Body was an exhibition at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art from August 25-December 9, 2023. According to the Halsey’s description: “In this exhibition, La Vaughn Belle seeks to explore the relationship of history, land, and the bodies between them.” When the Land Meets the Body presents a selection of existing work and new commissioned works inspired by the Lowcountry landscape. Through this process, Belle will consider the idea that who we are individually and collectively is a product of historical processes often represented in the landscape. Over the last decade, Belle’s work has been centered in decolonial art practices that challenge the narratives in colonial archives. With this project, she weaved biography and history to create interventions in historical sites and considered how landscapes and ecosystems are manipulated by those who live within them.”
La Vaughn Belle is a renowned artist known for making visible the unremembered through painting, video, photography, installation, writing, and public interventions. Moderated by librarian Mary Jo Fairchild, WGS affiliate faculty members Deborah Bidwell (Senior Instructor of Biology), Mari Crabtree (Associate Professor of African American Studies), and Shannon Eaves (Associate Professor of History) discuss Belle’s exhibition When the Land Meets the Body. Along with making visible the unremembered, Bidwell, Crabtree, and Eaves dive into themes of rebellion and nature, rebellion and the body, and decolonizing art archives and identities.
Before we delve into the works featured in the exhibit, let’s get to know the scholars in conversation. Shannon Eaves is an author, historian, and associate professor of African American History. Eaves’ areas of expertise include 19th-century U.S. and African American History, along with slavery and gender in the antebellum South. Along with Eaves, scholar Deborah Bidwell is a senior instructor at the College of Charleston with a scientific background in biomimicry. Fairchild describes Bidwell as a “Biomimic biologist, educator, entrepreneur, optimist, leader, and explorer.” Also in conversation is Mari Crabtree, writer and former associate professor of African American Studies at the College of Charleston (now at Emerson College). Moderator Fairchild describes the established professor as “an interdisciplinary scholar; her research blends black studies, cultural studies, history, and literature. She seeks to excavate black life beyond the binary of suffering or resistance by exploring how culture provides a lens for understanding the struggle of black liberation but also black ingenuity, joy, and love.”All three of these accomplished scholars explore the theme of rebellion through land, body, and history in La Vaughn Belle’s exhibit.
Beginning with the series Swarm, Belle cut and burned through images from colonial archives of the Danish West Indies to 
create a “swarm” effect. With themes of rebellion and the body and decolonizing art archives and identities, these images (pictured below) are powerful.
At first glance, the swarm is evident. It may seem almost random, but as you look closer you can see the swarm is intentional. Eaves reminds the audience that due to the time period, these images are carefully curated. It’s true, think about it, they didn’t have access to a high-resolution handheld camera that could take multiple images a minute. When they wanted to take a picture, they had to plan, sit still, and then capture the moment. And they chose to include Black people. They were able to portray Black people in specific ways and, in a way curate them to create the “perfect” photo. Belle takes this exploitation of black bodies and reclaims it, creating a swarm of cuts and burns around their bodies and through the bodies of the white people. Eaves says, “By creating these swarms through these cuts, it shows [the] obscuring [of] the power structure that once intended to subjugate those people and now bring[s] them to the forefront.” It is a rebellion of the body.
While exploring the theme of decolonizing art archives, Mari Crabtree mentions how redaction is important in reclaiming and waking work. Yet, Belle doesn’t redact these harmful images. She leaves both narratives.
They are left intentionally, just as they are cut and burned intentionally. Look closely at the image below and tell me those cuts and burns are not intentional. That they are not an act of reclamation.
Belle’s work, and especially this exhibit, is centered around nature. While Swarm touches on the subjects of rebellion and the body along with decolonizing art archives, the “Storm” series focuses on rebellion in nature. Belle’s studio was hit during Hurricane Maria, causing most of the materials to be ruined. But instead of throwing out the now ruined paper that scattered her studio, Belle created an archive of the storm. Bidwell states, “With the storm in particular that we’re looking at when we’re thinking about the power of hurricanes and the imagery she’s using and the palm trees in these works in particular. And the resilience of those trees, the palm is embodying resilience, in a storm.”
Dissecting each piece of paper used in the artwork, one can see the use of palm trees and nature throughout the island while also incorporating scraps found in her studio. The palm trees resist the storm while the torn pieces of paper remember the storm. The storm is not forgotten, but it is rebelled and reframed. In the words of Eaves, “Storm captures the fragile nature of human life, the fragile nature of land but also the resilience of the land and the resilience of people to be able to weather storms and to maybe not be what they used to be but to emerge as something different.”
Similarly to the Storm series, Bidwell discusses the rebellion in nature present in Effluvia, a short video in which Belle engages with the marshes and swamps of the Lowcountry. Bidwell specifically brings up the scene where La Vaughn Belle moves through the marsh. Belle walks through the marsh, moving the water, and the water moves her. It is a mutual relationship where Belle isn’t afraid of what’s in the water. One where she’s just present, she’s in it. The water that was once moved with the bodies of enslaved people was now moving with Belle. The water has persevered because, as we often forget, humans are not the center of things.
The last piece is titled For Those Of Us Who Live At the Shoreline. This part of the exhibition is a series of digital collages. Bidwell invites us to think about the plants used in the collage. How the plants are all Caribbean and carefully chosen. These collages remind us of where the border between two ecosystems meets: land and water. Not only their connection but the reconnection of the body to the land. In Bidwell’s words, “Purposely connecting the body to place.” This is evident in the pieces. The collage below shows a woman lying there while Caribbean plants begin to grow over her body, reconquering by the land. These pieces are symbols of the reconnection of land and body. A reclaiming of nature through the rebellion of the body.
La Vaughn Belle’s exhibition, When the Land Meets the Body, as discussed by Shannon Eaves, Deborah Bidwell, and Mari Crabtree, offers a profound exploration of the themes of rebellion, nature, and decolonization. Through the cutting and burning of archival images in Swarm, Belle reclaims and reframes the historical subjugation of Black bodies, turning symbols of oppression into powerful acts of reclamation. The Storm series further emphasizes resilience, illustrating how both nature and humanity endure and transform through adversities. Similarly, Effluvia and For Those Of Us Who Live At the Shoreline highlight Belle’s intricate relationship with nature, showcasing the dynamic interplay and mutual resilience between humans and the natural world. This exhibit shows that Belle doesn’t merely recall history; she actively engages with it, challenging and dismantling colonial narratives while fostering a deeper connection between land, body, and history.
a guest speaker to kick off the Land, Body, History series. Since the series explores voices and expertise from global Black feminist perspectives, Dr. Jean-Charles was the perfect fit. Not only is Jean-Charles a Black feminist literary scholar and cultural critic, but her familial and cultural background has deeply influenced her research and work as a scholar.
What is it, then, that makes Jean-Charles’s immense body of work so unique? It’s all about her point of view. When this scholar-activist looks through archives, she doesn’t just see disadvantaged Haitian girls; she sees her grandmother, aunts, friends, cousins, and even her mother. She understands the importance of access, the importance of having her books translated, and the importance of work done not only 
wanted to know with whom she was speaking. Jean-Charles made me think of my roots. My lived experiences with land, body, and history have shaped how I approach my research and live my life.