1993
mixed media
19 x 14.5 x 15.5 in.
Collection of Emily F. Ennis

Alleviating suffering and healing the human spirit are the two primary themes of Stout's most recent work. Although she has drawn on the African healing model, which invokes spirits not only to bring relief but to visit retribution, Stout's vision is largely confined to forging positive change. She has created a series of individual pieces that image and imagine solutions to a myriad of psychic and social ills, identifying directly with the needs and desires of both petitioner and practitioner. In She Wanted to Cure Society's Ills Stout searches for answers to her questions about the human condition by mining the material resources of conjuring: an old medicine cabinet filled with Hoodoo potions in bottles and vials, a bundle of High John the Conqueror root for love and protection, a mirror to look beyond the world of the living, and on the inside of the open door, the reminders, notations, and mystic codes of a healer (e.g., "Ms. Amos needs an orris root, her man is wandering"). Stout alludes to the causes behind such cures with references to newspaper stories, which are papered over the exterior of the cabinet with headlines like: "2000 Boarder Babies in U.S.," "The Crime Bill: Worse Everyday," or "Saving the Disappeared." Stout has also used the newspaper for its apotropaic effect, borrowing the southern African-American practice of protecting one's home by papering the walls with newsprint to "confuse jealous spirits with an excess of information." She Wanted to Cure Society's Ills captures the essential benevolence and optimism of Stout's vision, driven by her belief that in making objects she will not only do "what she feels compelled to do and solve for herself" but she will make a difference by exposing others to the same magical possibilities. Though seeking positive change for all humanity by deploying a rich storehouse of medicinal and spiritual tools, the "bad news" this piece describes also encompasses the long-standing injustice and discrimination suffered by blacks in America, some of whom, like Stout, are willing to share the magical secrets to a better life even with their oppressors.

From M. Berns, Dear Robert, I'll See You at the Crossroads: A Project by Renée Stout, University Art Museum, UCSB, 1995.

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