OUTLAW CLOTHESLINE
In memory of my brother Joseph Hernandez.
"I know, I know, I know I'm never never never gonna leave you babe.
But I gotta go away from this place."
-Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Led Zeppelin
The Outlaw Clothesline is an installation comprised of mixed media works on bandanas in memory of my brother Joseph Hernandez who ended his cancer battle in April of 2010. The bandanas piece together chapters of his life from beginning to end. Creating these works in the months leading up to the 4th anniversary of his passing was cathartic. As intimate tributes to my brother's life, they also double as tributes to the Brooklyn of our youth. Saying goodbye to a conflicted yet idealized Brooklyn of our past, I created these while packing and purging material baggage, both mine and his. Two weeks after the anniversary I left our East New York, our Park Slope, our Brooklyn, and moved to Puerto Rico.
A previous project, also dedicated to my brother, superimposed digital montages and calligraphy over the scanned image of one of his bandanas. The Outlaw Clothesline is a natural progression where the images and narratives come to life on actual bandanas. I had seen him use those bandanas, since my earliest memories of him dressed as an outlaw, to his work as a mason, to his final weeks battling through radiation and chemotherapy. I first worked directly on a bandana in my 2011 piece "Fuck Cancer." Soon after the concept of a clothesline developed. Repurposing some of the concepts created on paper, I call the works on bandanas "remixes" tying them in to the authentic hip hop that my brother adored. I combine the use of my fountain pen and calligraphy markers, with those from the black case of markers that he would carry back and forth from hospital stays to make inspirational "Fuck Cancer" signs for his room. From highlights, to shadows, to lightning bolts and other embellishments created with his markers, I find his graf hand guiding mine. My big brother is a phenomenal spirit that has influenced every single aspect of my life and in particular my art, of which he was the biggest supporter. My connection to him has only strengthened in spirit. I am ever grateful for his light.
A video chronicle of this tribute to my brother’s life, fight and legacy.
Yasmin speaks with curator Savona Bailey of the 2014 Fusion Art exhibition in New York, where about the 2014 exhibition where The Outlaw Clothesline Project debuted.