Mixed Media Assemblage | 17 x 22 x 4 inches | Custom Framed
 
Mail Call portrays the hope and connection African American servicewomen brought to troops abroad — while confronting what awaited these women upon their return to the U.S.
 
Part of the From War to Peace series, Mail Call honors the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (the Six Triple Eight), a predominantly Black women’s unit of the U.S. Army that cleared an astounding 17-million-piece backlog of wartime mail in England. Their precision and speed restored vital lines of communication — and morale. Despite exemplary work under grueling conditions, they returned to a segregated America that still denied them equality.
 
Layering personal and historical narrative, the assemblage references an audio recording the artist’s mother sent to a brother stationed in Europe — divided into two records to comply with Army regulations — of her singing “Un bel dì” from Madama Butterfly. The snippet of score includes the famous aria’s opening notes. By contrast, while the war raged in the Pacific, the Metropolitan Opera withdrew the opera from its repertory — given the plot of a young Japanese geisha abandoned by an American naval officer —a telling cultural context for the period. 
 
A soda fountain with upturned stools quietly anticipates the coming Civil Rights sit-ins — a reminder that distinguished service abroad did not guarantee respect or rights at home.
 
Mail Call connects women-in-WWII history, African American history, military postal logistics that bridged the front and the home front, and social justice in a single contemporary narrative assemblage.
 
Materials: Dollhouse miniatures, quartz, freshwater pearls, Murano glass, jasper, onyx, paper, fabric, ribbon, mirror
 
Framing: Archival museum glass in a deep black custom frame by Chevy Chase Art Gallery, Washington, DC.