The heart of this Ocean is dark
And it’s rising higher than it’s ever been
So we continue
To float on these Hopes
Everything we’ve become has led us here.
To collect our past
Our deepest reflection
One day we’ll throw this bottle into eternity
A Sanctuary to forget.
How we got here.
Thank you for holding me
You are already enough
So this is us becoming again.
You have my Heart, and it’s ok to rest here.
- Hunter Saxony III
Eleanor Harwood Gallery is thrilled to present its first solo show with Hunter Saxony III.
Hunter Saxony III, known as the Last Black Calligrapher in San Francisco, is fascinated by the power of words. Saxony first became interested in calligraphy in his teens, influenced by hardcore bands, album art and the occult. Through many years as a self-taught artist he has mastered lettering, filigree, flourishes, the intricacies and technical sides of calligraphy. He uses his marks to point to how language influences us and how we interpret words. His pen and ink work forces us to slow down and carefully look, nudging us towards a more conceptual understanding of mark-making and communication.
“You Have My Heart… It's OK to Rest Here.” includes four major bodies of work meditating on love, a memorialization of Nia Wilson, works of homesickness, and collaborative pieces made with his life-partner Megan Wilson.
A series of five pieces on love includes three sets of Sankofa (Hearts) and Mpuannum (Squares) and two larger works. As a whole they are about the complexity of two people moving from the state of lovers into life-partners. The Hearts are statements of loyalty and the Mpuannum symbolize longevity. The two other works are “This Part of Me is You” and “Oshun / Ocean;” both are reflections on romantic love.
The second series is “Nia Wilson / Say Her Name / No Silence.” Florence Fu writes about Hunter Saxony III’s calligraphic response to the murder of Nia Wilson: “In 2018, Nia Wilson was murdered by a White man at the MacArthur BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station in Oakland, California. The attack was racially motivated, and representative of ongoing anti-Black sentiment and action in the US. In the aftermath of murders like Wilson’s, many media outlets try to reframe or minimize the narrative of the victims, scrambling for justifications. Nationwide protests and vigils followed Wilson’s passing, while individuals memorialized her in their own ways. Bay Area artist Hunter Saxony III (AKA The Last Black Calligrapher in San Francisco) created a series in her memory titled Nia Wilson / Say Her Name / No Silence.
The series alters vintage photographs of Southern gentry, writing over them with Wilson’s name. At first glance it is the unfamiliar faces that pop out in these portraits, before the foreground ornately written in bright red ink comes into focus. Both elaborate and haunting, the lettering interrupts the prim and proper portraits. While at first it may seem like the photographed individuals have no connection to Wilson or contemporary events, they represent a lasting structure in which power, privilege, and inequality continues its hold over generations.”
The third series uses large black letters on the underside of the paper employing traditional lettering known as Fraktur script. The front of the paper is adorned with ornamentation and filigree. This series is about homesickness and refers to Hunter’s hometown in Rhode Island.
The fourth set of works are three collaborative pieces made with Megan Wilson, Saxony III’s life partner. They share a business, Sigil Contemporary, that fuses Hunter’s Calligraphic work with Megan Wilson’s tattooing. He creates the artwork, and the client ends up with a paper piece and Wilson’s interpretation of the design, as she states, “permanently tattooed on their temporary body.”
The four series as a whole come together to show us an enormous breadth and complexity of mark-making and meaning-making utilizing a deeply thoughtful and contemporary take on calligraphy.
