#5WomenArtists: Dominique Moody

Can you name five women artists?

Since 2016, the National Museum of Women in the Arts  has been asking this question on social media each March during Women’s History Month using the hashtag #5WomenArtists. The campaign calls attention to the fact that women have not been treated equally in the art world, and today they remain dramatically underrepresented and undervalued in museums, galleries, and auction houses.

Black women are doubly underrepresented in this context, often absent from in America’s museums and erased from the art world’s consciousness. With an eye towards changing that, CAAM will be sharing images and biographies of five women artists from CAAM’s permanent collection.

Dominique Moody

Dominique Moody
Sole/Soul Shine, 2007
Mixed-media assemblage
58 x 48 in.
Collection of the California African American Museum. Gift of the artist

Dominique Moody found the shoe sole that she used for this assemblage in a gutter on the corner of Pico Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. Many years later, a friend gave her a shoebox he had made when he was a boy. Moody realized how well the two objects worked together and added the avocado tree branches as legs. The work’s feet are wooden molds used to make shoes, covered by maps of both Los Angeles and New York. On the back of the box, Moody added a photograph of a young barefoot Latino street seller holding a stack of handmade shoes—a reflection upon the idea of young black boys similarly trying to make money despite difficult circumstances. The sculpture serves as a metaphor for a common journey, specifically from coast to coast, but also in the larger sense of migration in general and the shared experiences of African Americans and Mexican Americans. The glowing blue in the interior of the box—the “shine” from the work’s title—refers to polished shoes as well as a hope for a brighter future. The round mirror is intended to capture glimpses of viewers, so that they might also find themselves reflected in the assemblage and its message.

(image: blogmoodysoulsoledetail_1.jpg caption: Dominique Moody; <i>Sole/Soul Shine</i>, 2007, detail; Mixed-media assemblage; 58 x 48 in. Collection of the California African American Museum. Gift of the artist)

(image: blogmoodysoulsoledetail_2.jpg caption: Dominique Moody; <i>Sole/Soul Shine</i>, 2007, detail; Mixed-media assemblage; 58 x 48 in. Collection of the California African American Museum. Gift of the artist)

Other 2019 #5WomenArtists selections:

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• Sadie Barnette
• Lisa Diane Wedgeworth
• Ronda Brown
• April Bey

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