Freestylin on Kongo Square (study)

James Phillips emblazons the rich history of New Orleans’s Black community in the energetic abstraction Freestylin on Kongo Square. Primarily an abstractionist, Phillips interest in Black history, culture and music come together in this work. Kongo Square is an historic public square where enslaved and free Blacks could gather and exchange socially and culturally beginning in the mid-18th century. The site developed into a space where black cultural expressions—particularly dance and music—were cultivated and celebrated. It is even touted as the birthplace of jazz. Phillips approaches the sights, movements and sounds of the square through rhythmic patterns that seem to zigzag randomly across the canvas. Suggested here are the improvisational cadences of jazz and the movement of bodies—the sights and sounds of “freestyling” on the square.

Text from the Out of Many research project