Five decades after gold medalist Tommie Smith raised a black-gloved fist to protest civil rights injustices during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympics, the issue of athletes using the field as a public forum is again at the forefront of intense discussion about race and social justice.
On Wednesday, the NFL ruled that players can no longer kneel during the national anthem without risking punishment or their teams facing possible fines. The decision came after nearly two years of heated debate starting in August 2016 when San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick began to kneel during the national anthem because of his views on the country’s treatment of racial minorities.
Now, the High Museum in Atlanta is delving into another historic athlete protest with an upcoming show, “With Drawn Arms: Glenn Kaino and Tommie Smith” that will open in late September. The collaboration between the contemporary art star and the athlete reflects Kaino’s longstanding fascination with Smith, whom the artist first sought out and met in 2013. Years before the current NFL controversy, Kaino had observed that Smith was living in a “time bubble” centered around his record-setting race and subsequent salute. Several sculptural collaborations resulted.
Bridge, the first such work, was installed in a historic Naval building, at the second edition of Washington, DC’s 5×5 Project. Though it appeared to be an elegant footbridge with suspended gold objects for slats, each of the bronze slats was actually a painted cast of Smith’s arm.
Bridge and several new works will be on view for the exhibition. They include drawings by Kaino and Smith, excerpts from an original documentary about Smith’s life and his collaboration with Kaino (directed by Kaino and Afshin Shahidi), objects from the Tommie Smith Archives, and a series of drawings contributed by students from across the US.
Speaking to artnet News, Rooks said he has long been a fan of Kaino’s work and knew he had been coming back and forth to Atlanta to work with Smith. “[Kaino] filled me in over the course of the year and we just both decided this makes a lot of sense to do an exhibition at the High Museum so that’s where we came into the picture,” he said.
Parts of the documentary film project are excerpted specifically for the exhibition and will be shown in a dedicated gallery at timed intervals. Musician John Legend, his partners Mike Jackson and Ty Stiklorius, and actor Jesse Williams serve as executive producers for the film.
Further, Rooks said Kaino and Smith have been traveling around to various cities with members of his studio, conducting workshops with students. “So basically it’s pedagogical, teaching them about the historical moment the 1968 Olympics and Tommie’s life,” Rooks said. The students are then invited to draw a frame and those drawings are presented as a group as well.
A new Kaino sculpture, titled Invisible Man (Salute) (2018), is a life-size likeness of Smith with his fist raised, made of blackened aluminum and mirrored stainless steel. From the back, the sculpture is a detailed and true-to-life sculpture of Smith in his tracksuit. But the front is a mirrored surface where visitors see themselves reflected “thus contextualizing each individual’s experience within a continuum of history since 1968,” according to the museum’s statement.
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