ARTIST’S STATEMENT
As the viewer sees “Hope Out of Darkness” from a distance, the sculpture emanates an intelligent, free, American citizen, leading the way to a more equitable future with a raised torch. But as one moves closer and experiences the sculpture in the round, the viewer will discover the pathos and tragedy of Solomon Northup’s story. They will realize he was in fact kidnapped, enslaved, and eventually liberated after twelve horrific, long years. The viewer will empathize with Northup’s pain, and feel his courageous endurance that led a wrongfully enslaved man to freedom once again.
The papers in Solomon Northup’s upraised hand represent many things such as the papers required to be held by free black Americans to move about the country, the letters sent north in an effort to free Northup, the legal documents written to free him, and his own memoir. They also represent black American stories purged from the history books as well as education and the elevation of all American citizens through knowledge.
The manacles in Northup’s opposite hand represent his time in captivity and the indignities he and many others suffered during long years of enslavement. Northup has escaped these shackles through perseverance and they no longer bind him, but instead, he holds them and will use them to help break the chains for others. As viewers move around the piece they will discover his scarred back, illustrating how he was beaten until his clothes were tattered rags. These scars will be with him for the rest of his life, both physically and emotionally, and they represent not shame, but endurance. One of his shoes is worn through and dangling, taken directly from his memoir – “Besides, I had lost one shoe, the sole having come entirely off, leaving the upper only dangling to my ankle”.
The pedestal Northup is standing on is split to represent the duality of his life. He is courageously rising up from enslavement with a posture of triumph and struggle. The engraved side will be rusted corten steel, formal but not perfect, and represents the thin veneer of his precious freedom. The other side, craggy and difficult, illustrates that his and all of our freedoms were built upon a foundation of uncomfortable truths that we have to rise above.
His courageous endurance will emanate for centuries, and inspire others to overcome their own obstacles, no matter how hopeless it may seem at the moment. “Hope Out of the Darkness” portrays Solomon Northup as a self-liberated man, heroically taking charge of his own destiny, and using his experiences to show the world the horrors of slavery.