Label
“The title was taken from Charles Mingus’s protest song, ‘The Original Fable of Faubus,’ which includes the line, ‘two, four, six, eight / they brainwash and teach you hate.’ Written in response to the desegregation struggle, the song implicates then-governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus (amongst others), for his refusal to integrate Arkansas schools.
In this piece, I’m working with the same idea, but I’m shifting my focus from the powers that be to something more systemic. In montages created from Civil Rights-era photographs by William P. Straeter, John T. Bledsoe, and Will Counts, I’m zooming in on a particular member of the crowd and examining this manifestation of bigotry; I’m looking at the contradiction between the youthfulness of the person and her hateful facial expression. This hate is obviously learned, which is exactly what Mingus implies.
The cadence, which is reminiscent of a school spirit chant, further ties it to the integration struggle within the schools.”Label
2024 post:
Throughout 2024, we're looking back at the 100 year history of art at the Mulvane. LaMont Hamilton's installation "Two, Four, Six, Eight (They Brainwash & Teach Hate)" was created for the Mulvane’s 2014 exhibition "Contemporary Reflections: Brown v. Board After Sixty Years." Hamilton's work looks back at the struggle to desegregate schools using details from Civil Rights-era photographs by William P. Straeter, John T. Bledsoe, and Will Counts.
"I'm zooming in on a particular member of the crowd and examining this manifestation of bigotry; I’m looking at the contradiction between the youthfulness of the person and her hateful facial expression. This hate is obviously learned."
–LaMont Hamilton