Brett-Cook
Little Bobby Hutton Power Figure – Oakland Museum Installation 2012 Version
Brett Cook in collaboration with LIFE is LIVING Reflections of Healing
9’5” x 18’, spray enamel, oil pastel, paint marker on wood and mixed media
with Black Panther Party Point #10 in English, Spanish, Amharic, Korean, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Chinese
The Little Bobby Hutton Power Figure is one of eight Reflections of Healing portraits started in October 2010 and colored by hundreds of hands at Lil' Bobby Hutton Park (Defremery Park) in West Oakland as part of the LIFE is LIVING (LiL) Festival. LiL is a national initiative that establishes a new model for partnerships between diverse and under-resourced communities, green action agencies, and the contemporary arts world. Reflections of Healing is a multi-faceted process of community building that includes the collaborative development of large-scale public works featuring Bay Area residents pictured as adolescents – who through practice or legacy demonstrate healing. The project reflects new definitions of youth identity while producing an Oakland-wide installation that celebrates past, present, and future models of healing.
Who is Bobby Hutton?
Robert “Little Bobby” Hutton was the first to join the newly formed Black Panther Party for Self Defense in December 1966. He was only 16 years old when he joined but already believed in the ideals outlined in the Black Panther’s Ten-Point Program; he was dedicated to serving his community. Hutton became the Panthers' first national treasurer who became an icon of the movement’s hope, vision, and struggle.
The wings that surround Bobby Hutton are drawn from images of Horus. From the most remote times of Egypt, the symbol of the hawk (Horus) was used to represent all-encompassing divinity (GOD, the supreme Being, creator of all things): omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. The Hawk is also the symbol of the human soul. The implication is that the Supreme Being and the Human Soul are identical.
What are the pre-conquest images/references in the Installation?
In terms of pre-conquest Americas, there is a special ceremony in the Wixarika ceremonial center of Kieuruwitua (Las Latas) that takes place sometime in late June called Namawita Neixa, or el Baile de la Siembra, signaling the time when people can begin to sow their crops. On the last night around 3 in the morning there is a moment when all the women come out and begin to sweep the patio of the ceremonial center (which is made up of what outsiders call "gods houses" but are really houses to our collective ancestors). One interpretation of the brooms is that they clean the way for our ancestors prior to the final dance that takes place in the big house/temple where the children dance in circles with their rattles and a ladder made of hickory is set on fire thus initiating the new agricultural cycle. The brooms sweep away delusion of the past or the future, so that we can see our true selves in the present moment.
Formally the brooms echo the pallet of the painting, and therefor extend it out of its square two-dimensional format. The shape and angles of the brooms echo feathers in the African Hawk figure, and soften the visual transition of the painted image out of the frame, helping to visually integrate the piece directly into the space it is installed.
The term nkisi is the general name for a spirit, or for any object that spirit inhabits. It is frequently applied to a variety of objects used throughout the Congo Basin in Central Africa thought to contain spiritual powers or spirits -- often also called “Power Figures”. The term and its concept have passed with the slave trade to the Americas, especially Latin America. The Bobby Hutton Power Figure represents a container from episodes of engaged residents acting out a contemplative exercise in portraiture that manifested as a reflection of community. By being crafted by participants the Bobby Hutton Power Figure, like all collaborative nkisi, are community monuments not only filled with the spirit of the dead, but the energy of the living
Little Bobby Hutton Power Figure – Oakland Museum Installation 2012 Version
Brett Cook in collaboration with LIFE is LIVING Reflections of Healing
9’5” x 18’, spray enamel, oil pastel, paint marker on wood and mixed media
with Black Panther Party Point #10 in English, Spanish, Amharic, Korean, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Chinese
The Little Bobby Hutton Power Figure is one of eight Reflections of Healing portraits started in October 2010 and colored by hundreds of hands at Lil' Bobby Hutton Park (Defremery Park) in West Oakland as part of the LIFE is LIVING (LiL) Festival. LiL is a national initiative that establishes a new model for partnerships between diverse and under-resourced communities, green action agencies, and the contemporary arts world. Reflections of Healing is a multi-faceted process of community building that includes the collaborative development of large-scale public works featuring Bay Area residents pictured as adolescents – who through practice or legacy demonstrate healing. The project reflects new definitions of youth identity while producing an Oakland-wide installation that celebrates past, present, and future models of healing.
Who is Bobby Hutton?
Robert “Little Bobby” Hutton was the first to join the newly formed Black Panther Party for Self Defense in December 1966. He was only 16 years old when he joined but already believed in the ideals outlined in the Black Panther’s Ten-Point Program; he was dedicated to serving his community. Hutton became the Panthers' first national treasurer who became an icon of the movement’s hope, vision, and struggle.
The wings that surround Bobby Hutton are drawn from images of Horus. From the most remote times of Egypt, the symbol of the hawk (Horus) was used to represent all-encompassing divinity (GOD, the supreme Being, creator of all things): omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. The Hawk is also the symbol of the human soul. The implication is that the Supreme Being and the Human Soul are identical.
What are the pre-conquest images/references in the Installation?
In terms of pre-conquest Americas, there is a special ceremony in the Wixarika ceremonial center of Kieuruwitua (Las Latas) that takes place sometime in late June called Namawita Neixa, or el Baile de la Siembra, signaling the time when people can begin to sow their crops. On the last night around 3 in the morning there is a moment when all the women come out and begin to sweep the patio of the ceremonial center (which is made up of what outsiders call "gods houses" but are really houses to our collective ancestors). One interpretation of the brooms is that they clean the way for our ancestors prior to the final dance that takes place in the big house/temple where the children dance in circles with their rattles and a ladder made of hickory is set on fire thus initiating the new agricultural cycle. The brooms sweep away delusion of the past or the future, so that we can see our true selves in the present moment.
Formally the brooms echo the pallet of the painting, and therefor extend it out of its square two-dimensional format. The shape and angles of the brooms echo feathers in the African Hawk figure, and soften the visual transition of the painted image out of the frame, helping to visually integrate the piece directly into the space it is installed.
The term nkisi is the general name for a spirit, or for any object that spirit inhabits. It is frequently applied to a variety of objects used throughout the Congo Basin in Central Africa thought to contain spiritual powers or spirits -- often also called “Power Figures”. The term and its concept have passed with the slave trade to the Americas, especially Latin America. The Bobby Hutton Power Figure represents a container from episodes of engaged residents acting out a contemplative exercise in portraiture that manifested as a reflection of community. By being crafted by participants the Bobby Hutton Power Figure, like all collaborative nkisi, are community monuments not only filled with the spirit of the dead, but the energy of the living