Source: Willie Cole, Stowage. 1997. Woodcut, composition 49 9/16 x 95 1/16" (125.9 x 241.5 cm); sheet 56 1/4 x 104 3/4" (142 x 266 cm). Publisher: Alexander and Bonin Publishing, Inc., New York. Printer: Derriere L'Etoile Studios, New York. Edition: 16. (Jacqueline Brody Fund and The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art)
Discussion Questions
- What are your initial reactions—emotional as well as intellectual—upon viewing Willie Cole’s Stowage? Why might the work have provoked those reactions?
- In Stowage, the title and outlined shape in the center suggest that the print illustrates enslaved people stowed in a ship. But the image was constructed from an ironing board and shows imprints from different iron plates. What claim is Cole making about the relationship between these seemingly unrelated objects: ship and ironing board?
- Is Stowage a primary source, a secondary source, both, or neither? Explain your reasoning.