May 10, 2008
The Coleman Center for the Arts is pleased to present Southern Sounds, a gallery exhibition and downtown mural by renowned artist, Tierney Malone. Opening festivities will take place on Saturday, May 10th. A celebration of Malone’s mural and a cookout will begin at 4 PM in downtown York. The exhibition opening will continue in the Coleman Center gallery from 6 to 8 PM.
The exhibition is a an installation of drawings and wall signs that celebrates Malone’s Southern roots. It features drawings inspired by his time spent in York over the last year while creating the mural, SOUTHERN SOUNDS: Hear My Train A Coming. Malone’s work uses sign painting and pop culture to tell stories about the people and ideas that interest him.
Aware that in a small town there was no one person who could be depicted to represent the community, Malone uses various stories and lore from York, Sumter County, and Alabama. The presence of the train runs throughout the mural, as it does through York, and the mural itself is the size of an actual train box car.
John Henry, the hero of superhuman self determination who won the legendary battle of man versus machine when he raced a steam powered hammer, is prominently featured in the mural. Many folklorists now believe that the real life man the legend of John Henry was based on came from Alabama. Given York’s history as a railroad town John Henry was an apt figure to include. Malone’s depiction comes from a jazz album art cover, designed to look like the front of a train.
Malone thinks of the mural as a song that might be sung about the community. He included an illusion to the well known Vera Ward Hall song, “Trouble So Hard,” that Allen Lomax recorded in the 1940s. Hall was from Livingston, Alabama, and was introduced to Lomax by Ruby Pickens Tarrt. In 2005 Vera Ward Hall was inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame.
Together the various images bring to mind stories and symbols that intersect with the history of the railroad, music, and people of Sumter County. Malone’s ultimate comment on community is embodied in the cascading text, “His Story, Her Story, Their Story, Our Story.”
As viewers drive through the downtown, a bright orange depiction of the word “York” will catch their eyes. Upon closer inspection they may see faintly above it the word “New.” Circa 1838 New York was one the first names of the City now known as York. To Malone, this was both a historical reference as well as a remark on the immense potential and energy he encountered while working in the community over the last year.
Malone has intentionally left the mural with a blank spot, the final piece belonging to the youth to decide. The Coleman Center will work with students enrolled in their summer Drawing and 2D Design Class to come up with the final element of the York mural.
This project was made possible by funding from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Alabama Power Foundation, Warren Grant and family, and the generous contributions of our individual supporters. For more information please contact the Coleman Center for the Arts, 205-392-2005, colemancenter@gmail.com.
About the Artist
Malone’s work has been shown around the United States, including at Exit Art in New York City, the Project Row Houses in Houston, TX, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He is a recipient of the prestigious Lewis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award. Currently based in Houston, TX, Malone was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Mobile, Alabama.