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Paul Dash | Artist
These pieces were inspired by a photograph I found in a magazine that featured the funeral of Dr Martin Luther King. I was struck by the dignity of the mourners and those accompanying the casket on its mule-drawn wagon. Ultimately I was drawn to the sheer humility of the whole thing - no show of material sophistication in the form of a grand limousine to transport the body of the great man to the burial site. Instead we are presented with a casket, in a two-bit wagon drawn by a pair of mules, beasts of burden most closely associated with Black poverty and toil. The cortege seems to emerge from or is caressed by the estimated 250,000 who walked behind the group in Atlanta Georgia.
The whole scene encapsulates for me what Dr King was about and his dedication to supporting the ordinary black subject in the United States.