Who Builds Anything in This Country?

Throughout his career, Glenn Ligon has explored American history, literature, and culture with artworks that critically engage the legacies of modern painting and conceptual art. For Counterpublic, Ligon presents a curving brick sculpture overlooking the Mississippi River. Visible on the surface of individual bricks are the fingerprints of St. Louisans from Sumner and Vashon High Schools and those of residents from the Homer G. Phillips Senior Apartments. Historically, the imprints of hands and fingers on bricks were the physical traces of the enslaved men, women, and children who turned wet bricks by hand during their weeks-long drying process. Ligon’s sculpture honors the undocumented Black labor that built this country and the hands that will shape its future.

Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth Gallery.

A special thank you to Sumner High School students and administration, Vashon High School, and Homer G. Phillips Senior Apartments. Special thanks to our artist fabricators, Jamie Lee Harris, Chris Carl, Philip Finder, Irakoze Tuckpointing.

With support from Bob and Jane Clark.