Renee Stout, a very cool D.C. resident and assemblage artist, has a new collection of works on view at Hemphill Fine Arts — Journal: Book One. Walking into this cabinet of curiosity, you are greeted by a large, accurately painted advertisement for the corner psychic.
By putting on the airs of alter ego Fatima Mayfield, Stout is able to role play as a fictitious herbalist/fortuneteller who enters the arena of the shadowy and strange. Getting to know her work is like slithering into that same world. The objects on display seem to be, and probably are, charged with some mysterious energy. A hoodoo assortment called Spiritual Supplies: from New Orleans to Spanish Harlem (2007) helps believers improve their daily lives by gaining power in love and $$$. These supplies, things like Evil Go Away soap, Lucky In Love potion, candles, aerosol sprays, and patchouli oil for the desperate, gullible hippie, are lucky charms designed to magically replaces doubt and dejection. Makes you think of Don Stewart’s Green Prosperity Prayer Handkerchief infomercial – “call now and God will grace you with wealth if you purchase this high-quality felt prayer cloth!” Maybe these objects don’t hold any powers after all … but their eeriness is pretty damn convincing.
A mixed media homage unifies the room, a tree stump dedicated to the one divine being — according to Stout — Ogun, the deity of iron and war in the Yoruban culture of Nigeria, exudes violence and sickness. “Power objects” invoke Ogun, so Stout’s gemmed and bedazzled tokens of Haitian belief are befitting (and beautiful).
Her paintings are just like her found object pieces. These trompe l’oeils show the tacked strips of paper and items she’s collected as she catalogues and memorializes the power objects she loves. Her realistic drawings, often paired with memoir-like text reveal the life and times of a real life rootworker. Cholly Get Ready to Roll (2007) lists a menu of magical jewelry and trinkets found at your local supernatural store. Kits for everything from “get a job/keep a job” to weight loss.
