Events that occur in the past shape the present and hindsight is 20/20. The confounding aspect of events that are lodged in the past is our inability to fully understand the significance of these events at the time they are unfolding. We are unable to reverse temporal streams to examine past events with more wisdom, growth, and maturity. It means their impact on the present is inevitable, but what if someone had the ability to temporally displace themselves? Armed with knowledge of how specific events in the past will impact the future, which event in the past would the traveler visit? The deeper question is would he/she change something?

These are the questions I ask myself as I draw, paint, peel, tear, and build these mixed media collages. Like an event occurs in time, a layer composed of tape and paint is created. As time moves forward and new events occur, a new layer of paint covers the previous layer. While some things from the previous layers are lost, others are preserved and make an impression upon each new layer that is created. Weaving images of iconic civil rights moments into in physical layers of the collages, I think about what kinds of contemporary objects or figures would have made those moments in the past different. The process of cutting into the accumulation of material to find images underneath the surface is meant to mimic the act of reclaiming a connection to the past. There are more destructive moments when I insert new things/people into drawings of civil rights imagery. The finished work is a documentation of my personal journeys into the past with the knowledge of how past events will change the future.  

 Jamal Thorne is a Boston based artist who is known for his use of the drawing medium to investigate and visualize the nature of performed identity. With massive drawings, Jamal blends references from popular culture, religious iconography, and symbolism in an attempt to create a possible image of what our multilayered identities could look like. Born in Maryland, Jamal Thorne received his B.A. in Photographic Media from Morgan State University in 2008. Thorne relocated to Boston where he became the pioneering student in a newly formed cooperative M.F.A. Program between Northeastern University and The School of the Museum of Fine Art. He has exhibited his work at venues that include the James E. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, and the Huret and Specter Gallery in Boston. Jamal Thorne also received the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant in 2012. While continuing his work as an artist, Jamal serves as the Program Coordinator for the Media Arts and Studio Arts Programs at Northeastern University.