Artist Transforms Hate into Hope
Artist Jean Grosser鈥檚 artwork includes pieces that transform hate group literature into provocative art. For instance, she used the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚 historic lawsuit against the White Aryan Resistance (WAR) hate group as the subject of one of her pieces.
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人兽性交 Case Served as Inspiration
Artist Jean Grosser鈥檚 passion for social justice and human rights is so deeply ingrained that she believes it may be in her DNA.
Her grandfather was a conscientious objector during World War I. He was even imprisoned at Alcatraz and Leavenworth penitentiaries for his beliefs, ultimately serving time from 1918 to 1922.
鈥淎fter he was released from prison following World War I, he worked on behalf of other political prisoners who were still in jail,鈥� Grosser said. 鈥淗e was always an advocate for political activism, so I think this is in my genes somewhere.鈥�
The same passion is evident in Grosser鈥檚 artwork, which includes pieces that transform hate group literature into provocative art. For instance, she used the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚 historic lawsuit against the White Aryan Resistance (WAR) hate group as the subject of one of her pieces.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been someone who has been interested in human rights and social issues,鈥� said Grosser, who lives in South Carolina and serves as the head of the art department at Coker College in Hartsville.听 鈥淚 feel that somehow things that have always been important to me have found voice in these objects that I鈥檓 making.鈥�
Overall, Grosser鈥檚 passion has resulted in a 30-year art career dedicated to raising awareness of injustice and human rights. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, in Mexico, Great Britain, France and Tanzania.
More than two decades ago, Grosser鈥檚 attention was drawn to the death of Mulugeta Seraw. The Ethiopian graduate student was beaten to death with a baseball bat in 1988 by racist skinheads in Oregon. The 人兽性交 filed suit against Tom and John Metzger and their hate group, White Aryan Resistance, to hold them responsible for their role in the murder. WAR had organized the skinhead group. The 人兽性交 won a $12.5 million judgment, which devastated WAR.
鈥淚t was a classic case of racial violence,鈥� Grosser said. 鈥淗e was murdered simply because he was black.鈥�
She created a piece titled, 鈥淭his Means W.A.R.鈥� It features a portrait of Seraw and a coffin-like box containing a baseball bat. The box is collaged with documents related to WAR. The work, which was displayed in the South Carolina State Museum, served as a memorial to Seraw. It also served another purpose.
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鈥淭he artwork was meant to expose the White Aryan Resistance and the horror that they caused,鈥� she said.
Grosser has since put the piece on display in her office at Coker College. Though the piece may be shocking to students and parents visiting her office, she welcomes the opportunity to explain the work and the story behind it.
Confronting the disturbing messages espoused by hate groups and extremists is not just a challenge to the audience viewing her artwork; it was a challenge for the artist herself at one point.
When the Montana Human Rights Network and Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Mont., asked artists to transform neo-Nazi literature into artwork for a 2008 exhibit, Grosser was one of the artists involved. She drilled holes around the edges of the neo-Nazi books and used barbed wire to sew them shut.
She then allowed a group of art students to critique her work.
鈥淭he students said to me, 鈥榃hy are you wiring it closed? Are you scared to read what鈥檚 inside? Do you think that you can鈥檛 trust us to look at this information?鈥欌�� she said.
鈥淭hey found it very patronizing that I would do that. The interesting thing was that it made me confront the fact that I didn鈥檛 want to read them. And I hadn鈥檛 really opened them. But it completely changed my approach because the moment I got that feedback, I started reading the books.鈥�
Grosser鈥檚 art doesn鈥檛 hide the hateful messages. They鈥檙e exposed dramatically in 鈥淔ragments of Hate,鈥� a series that takes pages from the neo-Nazi Creativity Movement鈥檚 text, The White Man鈥檚 Bible, and reproduces them as large six foot by four foot drawings.
鈥淚鈥檝e come full circle in response to the students鈥� comments,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 feel like that information is so unbelievable that it鈥檚 important in some way to reveal it to a wider audience.鈥�
One piece features a page with the heading, 鈥淭he Six Million Lie,鈥� which denies the Holocaust. Another piece in the series headed with 鈥淨uestions and Answers about Creativity鈥� lays out the principles of this neo-Nazi movement. But by presenting these hateful messages in an art gallery, and in different forms, Grosser changes the context and meaning and communicates an entirely different message.
鈥淭he irony is appealing because I鈥檓 engaged in a creative pursuit and [the movement鈥檚 founder] calls the religion Creativity,鈥� she said. 鈥淪omeone could come into an art gallery and see 鈥楺uestions and Answers about Creativity鈥� and it engages them. But once they start reading, they are engaged in a very different way.鈥�
Grosser said audience reaction to the pieces is intriguing because people are usually not specific when they talk to her about her work. They will praise the work but no one has chosen to address its content. She said she鈥檚 intentionally chosen not to counter the disturbing messages within the work, but to simply trust the viewer has a 鈥渕oral core.鈥�
Grosser also created artwork displayed at the Greyhound bus terminal in Montgomery, Ala., where the Freedom Riders were beaten in 1961 as they tested federal laws designed to end segregation at the terminals. The artwork features a mugshot of a Freedom Rider on the left side of the piece that looks like a folding picture frame.
On the opposite side, a silhouette that evokes Southern Antebellum artwork represents the mugshot鈥檚 profile. The two images are surrounded by a collage of torn singed pages of hate literature and documents from the era, such as bus tickets and photos of segregated bus stations.
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鈥淛ean has an amazing talent for taking a message of hate and transforming it into a message of hope,鈥� said 人兽性交 President Richard Cohen. 鈥淪he鈥檚 the best at making lemonade out of lemons.鈥�
As Grosser continues to create art, she believes her passion for human rights will continue to be a theme that runs throughout her work.
鈥淢y desire to shed light on injustice always comes through one way or another,鈥� she said.
