Hank Willis Thomas
b. 1976, United States
Come out of the Bone Age, darling..., 1955/2015
Digital Chromogenic print
101.4x105.4cm
Edition of 3
Image courtesy Goodman Gallery, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, & the artist
This image is appropriated from an advert from the 1950s. Thomas removed the adjoining slogans – a mode he adopted for two exhibitions including the one on which this image was presented. Unbranded: A Century of White Women, 1915–2015, was on view at Jack Shainman Gallery. As with the previous body of work, Thomas has once again stripped advertisements of their advertising, this time turning his attention to the ways in which corporations market their products to white women — and in turn market white women as products themselves. He has chosen one image per year of the period in question, and the images are arranged as a timeline – as if to show social developments. One commentator was struck by the violence of this image, which conflicted with the smile on the female subject’s face. The irony of the image from the perspective of current times is that the male subject is supposedly ‘dragging’ the female subject towards a ‘better’ more liberal future.