Natalia Rodriguez
Staff Writer
The Claremont Lewis Museum of Art is showcasing “Julian Lucas: Happiness Pursued. Paradise Lost,” an exhibition featuring photographs by Claremont-based photographer Julian Lucas.
The exhibit opened with a reception on Saturday. Approximately 300 people attended. The exhibit highlighted themes of home and the idea of the American Dream.
“It’s a representation of African people,” Melissa Primus, an event-goer and family friend of Lucas’, said. “African American people inside of their own homes.”
Photographs from Lucas’ “Exodus” and “Apt.31” series were split into three rooms of the museum.
“Apt. 31” is a collection of snapshots of a family residing in its one-bedroom apartment. In them, the viewer can see how the subjects interact with each other and the space around them.
Lucas’ statement about “Apt. 31,” which is presented on one of the museum’s walls, states that the project is “a study of social norms, which challenges all parties involved: the dwellers and the viewers. It is an invitation to come to one’s own understanding, beyond our perception of social normality and comfort levels.”
“I think a lot of people see flaws in the American Dream philosophy, so I think it’s very relevant right now,” Tessa Casper, a freshman studying physics at Citrus College, said. “Showing the flaws, and that ideal, and what it looks like in real people’s lives, and how they respond to real-life events in relation to that idea.”
The second room was transformed into a living room similar to the one from Lucas’ childhood. The walls were lined with multiple pictures and artwork. The table at the center of the room displayed many magazines between two vases filled with flowers. There was an old-style television in one corner playing Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” a movie released in 1989 that highlighted racial tensions between many groups of people.
Mairead Lucke, a freshman studying theatre at UC San Diego, mentioned that the living room scene was her favorite in the exhibition.
“I think I could just stay there for hours just poking through every single little detail in that room,” Lucke said.
Lastly, the third room depicts photographs from Lucas’ “Exodus” series, a collection reflecting the continued story of the Great Migration in relation to the American Dream.
The Great Migration refers to the period between 1910 and 1970 when Black Americans moved from the American South to Northern, Midwestern and Western states, according to the National Archives, in which people tried creating homes away from oppression in the South.
Lucas mentioned growing up as a latch-key kid to a working mother and having to look after younger siblings. He stated that many of his friends grew up in similar circumstances.
Many of the pictures show people standing before their homes, but others depict people who had lost their homes to the Altadena fires.
“It’s almost like a phoenix rising from the ashes and moving on, moving forward,” Anita Thompson-Lewis, Lucas’ younger sister, said. “And that’s reality. That’s the real American Dream right there. It’s not everything coming so easy, it’s working for it.”
Lewis stated that the work that stood out to her was the large, mural-like photograph of Lucas, their mother, and their other sister, Shelli Shaw.
“I want (the audience) to be immersed in the space, and be immersed in the home,” Lucas said. “What home was for black people, what it looked like.”
The show runs until July 12. The Claremont Lewis Museum of Art is open from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Saturdays, 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, visit clmoa.org.
Natalia Rodriguez can be reached at natalia.rodriguez@laverne.edu.
Natalia Rodriguez is a sophomore creative writing and communications major. She is a member of ULV's The Blank Page Writer's Club and has served as a staff member for the school's literary magazine, Prism Review. She is currently a staff writer for the Campus Times.
Joseph Nocero is a senior photography major at the University of La Verne and a staff photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine. His work can also be found at Joseph Nocero Photography.
