Leslie Hewitt Biography

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Recommended: African American Visual Artists

“The imagination inspired by aesthetic encounters can get us to the point of benevolent surrender, making way for a new version of our collective selves” (Lewis 14). These are the indelible words of Sarah Lewis in the “Vision and Justice” issue of Aperture. Leslie Hewitt, an artist highlighted within this issue, clearly understands the power of these aesthetic encounters. In her work, Hewitt explores how our interactions with photography shape and preserve our collective memory of historical events and our own identities. Leslie Hewitt is a 40 year old African American visual artist born in New York City. Hewitt’s visual style is inspired by her roots in Third Cinema and sculptural practice, as well as her instincts as an archivist of documents and objects that bear witness to experience. One of Hewitt’s on-going endeavors is her Riffs on Real Time series. In this series, she creates images that juxtapose personal and familial iconography with public images such as newspapers, magazine articles, books, and other circulated materials. From protest literature, to snapshots from civil rights marches, and archival prints gathered from African American communities, Hewitt’s imagery is strongly linked to her childhood and her parents involvement in the Civil Rights movement. In her work, she …show more content…

By attentively combining both personal and collective representations of our past, Hewitt elucidates a deeper understanding of our current selves. As Hewitt clearly comprehends, “it is the artist who knows what images need to be seen to affect change and alter history, to shine a spotlight in ways that will result in sustained attention” (Lewis 11). While complex visual literacy is needed to fully delve into and appreciate Hewitt’s work, all viewers can experience the deeper emotional power and truth that her multidimensional images invariably

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