La société de métayage
M'barek Bouhchichi
Description
Subject Matter:
La société de métayage (Sharecropping Society), 2021-2022, is a three-dimensional wall-mounted sculpture that arrests the viewer with its bold geometric composition spreading across 25 square feet. It is composed of 54 rectangles of Corten steel (a heat-treated metal), each roughly 6 x 8 inches, arranged into a stepped pyramidal shape. The artist has cut out one-fifth of each steel rectangle in a unique geometric pattern before covering that small portion in yellow brass and returning it to the composition. This work references the disproportionate share of land in southern Morocco that is owned by the Haratin who have historically worked this land. Although the Haratin (a term referring to descendents of enslaved people brought from sub-Saharan Africa to Morocco beginning in the 15th century) developed their own advanced methods of agriculture and water management over centuries, they only legally own(ed) one-fifth of the land due to a system of sharecropping aimed at disenfranchising Black laborers – reminiscent of racist strategies employed during the Antebellum period in the southern United States. Bouhchichi represents these small shares as unique shapes in yellow brass which starkly contrast with the repeated black rectangles that represent plots of land. These distinctive and brilliant golden shapes representing Black ownership and agency suggest that, as curator and author Omar Berrada has written, “in the face of unchanging oppression, resistance takes singular forms.”
Physical Description:
Fifty-four rectangles of identical size, each with a distinct arrangement of brass on black metal, arranged in the shape of a stepped pyramid.
Usage Rights:
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