sky walker

Black Atlas reimagines the figure of Atlas through the legacy of Tommie Smith. In the Greek mythological story, Atlas was a half-human, half-titan condemned to holding the heavens on his shoulders after leading a rebellion against the tyrannical Olympian gods. Centuries later, Tommie Smith would also confront Olympians, setting a world record at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Famously, on the medal podium, he and John Carlos raised black-gloved fists during the U.S. national anthem, confronting the tyrannical oppression of Black people in the United States. 

In the work, Smith is pictured smiling while carrying the weight of the world. Smith symbolizes the historical burdens involuntarily borne by Black people: the labor of building nations while being expected to endure. Like Atlas, we have been cast as pillars of a world that does not always love us back. Yet Smith’s smile metamorphoses the narrative with the audacity of surviving, excelling, and protesting all at once. Both stories mirror how the fight for justice is to bear the weight of the world, which may be an unwanted curse, but is also an attestation to strength.