Artist discusses work that details laws involving race

ADRIAN — Laws dating as far back as 1640 — well before the United States of America was established — have either strengthened the institutionalism of racism in what is now the United States or have in some sense liberated Black people who have been oppressed.

That was the theme of a piece of artwork, “A Natural Language Search,” at the Inai art gallery at the Weber Retreat and Conference Center in Adrian. It was part of a special exhibit, “Unraveling Racism,” that recently ended.

Michelle Graznak, the Detroit-area artist who created “A Natural Language Search,” visited Inai on Jan. 15 during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend to speak about her artwork to Adrian Dominican sisters and associates and to members of the Lenawee County Chapter of the NAACP.

Graznak was part of a group of 12 Michigan artists who gathered regularly to listen to John Biewen’s podcast, “Seeing White,” and to share an artistic dialogue about the issues raised in the podcast. The artwork in “Unraveling Racism” is the result.

Graznak said she deliberated for a long time about how to approach the subject through art. She ultimately based her decision to create “A Natural Language Search” in part on her experience in a Catholic school when her Dominican teacher read from a history book about U.S. history and at one point closed the book and then spoke of the past from her own personal experiences.

“I realized that … the putting down of the book and talking from life experience was the most impactful thing for me,” she said. “That means there’s something missing in an authorized text by an authorized institution. That’s where I became curious, so I decided to educate myself.”

Her interest was piqued when, on the podcast, she heard about the 1640 John Punch case, in which John Punch — the only Black servant of three indentured servants who ran away — was sentenced to a lifetime of slavery, while the other two were only sentenced to a few more years of slavery. Michelle noted that this was the first case in which the defendant’s race was a factor in sentencing.

Graznak began to study other legal cases involving race.

“I wanted to approach institutions, especially the legal institutions,” she said. “When (issues) get to court, it’s always way after it’s been an issue in society. The law is a reflection of what society has already been going through.” The John Punch case “became the basis of my further research into laws that contribute to the continuous construction of legally racialized body (of laws),” she wrote in her artist’s statement.

In Graznak’s artwork, the John Punch case is the first in a series of laws and court decisions dealing with race, covering 1640 through 2019. That year, the Michigan House Judiciary Committee began to consider automatic expungements of certain crimes from criminal records — a process that was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous legal decisions and proceedings between those two dates are written on blocks of cloth — becoming more and more unraveled toward the bottom of the artwork — placed on a large, white sheet. The work also includes the projection of a bald eagle — the national symbol of freedom and democracy — in its natural habitat.

In her artist’s statement, Graznak explains that the white fabric is “a page in a book, a blank slate which the early colonizers believed this land to be, the color of spirituality and of terrorists’ cloaks.” She added that the process of cutting and sewing fabric “became a meditative space where my growing knowledge of this country’s legal history intersected with forgotten memories, observations and experiences of race throughout my life.”

Graznak said much of her research focused on Michigan, an abolitionist state that still had laws that discriminated based on race.

“As people who were escaping from slavery came into Michigan, white people came to see that these were skilled people,” possibly competition for jobs, she explained. “There was a concerted effort on the part of white people to keep Brown and Black people out of the job market.”

The laws and decisions depicted in “A Natural Language Search” are only a portion of the racist laws that Graznak uncovered, she said. Information on more cases is available on her website, fivemig7.wixsite.com/mysite-1.

Jeanette Henagan, branch president of the Lenawee County NAACP, attended the event and said the issue still persists.

“There were many laws that were passed intentionally to keep the Black community from realizing our full rights as U.S. citizens,” she said. “Even after the passing of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, there are people who continue to try to limit or deny our rights. My hope is that more right-minded people will serve in our Legislature and on our Supreme Court that will assure that everyone is afforded equal rights under the law.”

Throughout the afternoon, Graznak spoke to various groups as they came to Inai,

eliciting questions, comments and reflections from her audiences. Sister Josephine

Gaugier was struck by reflections offered by members of the Lenawee County chapter of the NAACP.

“They said that as mothers and grandmothers, they never get to rest from being worried and concerned for their children and grandchildren because they know that when they step out the door, anything can happen,” Gaugier said. “That’s another white privilege that we have — that we don’t have to worry like they do about our children. We don’t get pulled over just because we’re white.”

She added that the women also expressed the hope that generations in the future won’t have to worry as much about their children.

Inai (pronounced in-EYE, meaning “within” in Japanese) is a contemplative space and art gallery that resonates with the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ vision to seek truth, make peace and reverence life. It houses an art gallery, a quiet space for personal reflection and meditation, and an art room.

The next exhibit, Carole Harris: Textile Artist, is open from Friday, Feb. 3, through May 21. The artist’s reception is from 1 to 3 p.m. April 23. All guests are screened for COVID-19 and are required to wear masks. Inai is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily or by appointment. Call 517-266-4090 or 517-266-4000.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Artist discusses work that details laws involving race