Xavier Scott Marshall’s photographs evoke a sense of delicate balance. Within his frames, tensions arise between life and mortality, between light and dark — both thematically, and compositionally. The New York-born and based photographer often incorporates symbolic imagery into his work, allowing viewers to see reflections of themselves. “There are a lot of symbols that we carry with us throughout our daily lives that are reminders of setting, place and time,” Xavier explained in a recent interview. “I find it interesting using different symbolism to almost trick people’s minds to visit a certain place.”
Xavier employs these elements in his latest series titled The Seventh Day, which investigates the complex relationship between religiosity and Blackness through both a personal and universal lens. Xavier is interested in how we, as Black people across the African diaspora, navigate our connection to Christianity, while also recognizing the fraught origins of how it was introduced to our ancestors. How do we reconcile our relationship to a religion that has been used as a tool of manipulation, as much as it has for liberation?
This collection of ten striking portraits has been commissioned as part of Faces of Harlem, a public art show which opened over the weekend at Morningside Park. Founded by Harlem-based photographer and community organizer Sade Boyewa El in 2021, Faces of Harlem is also a non-profit and collective that provides accessible and cross-generational opportunities for communities of color to participate in cultural experiences that reflect their needs and desires.
“As people of color, it’s important for us to see ourselves in a positive light, but also for the new communities of transplants to see us,” said El, who’s been a Harlem resident for over 25 years. She added, “Harlem is and will always be known as the Black Mecca of the world. Let’s not forget that.”
For The Seventh Day, Marshall staged ten Harlemites as various saints and Christian icons in their homes. The resulting black-and-white hand-processed photographs reframe everyday people as sacred figures, worthy of praise in their own right. By reclaiming imagery popularized by renowned Renaissance painters, Xavier seeks to “undo the violence of visual colonialist propaganda inherited in America and beyond.” Each taking on a theatrical persona, Xavier’s subjects are shown perched on couches, resting in their bedrooms or in the hallway of an apartment building. Some individuals are surrounded by religious figurines, while others are dressed to reflect the saint they’re depicting.
The series title references Xavier’s own experience as a first-generation Trinidadian-American growing up in a household of devout Seventh-Day Adventist Christians. “I grew up Christian,” the photographer shares. “This body of work that I’ve been making for the past few years, with all the religious symbolism, is my way of exploring and further understanding my own relationship with Christianity and religion, in general.”
The artist’s decision to photograph his subjects in domestic settings is part of a larger shift in the theme of this year’s exhibition, which focuses on showing individuals in their homes rather than on the streets of Harlem. “We really wanted to move from the street to the indoors,” El said, referring to the ongoing impact of the pandemic. “We’re aiming to capture and rebuild those connections that we lost during these past two years.”
A centerpiece of the series, titled “SAINT MICHAEL (ARCHANGEL)”, shows a man sitting on the edge of a large dresser with his hands turned upwards and resting on his lap. His left hand is empty, while his right hand balances a small dagger, drawing parallels to historical renderings of Saint Michael, who is usually depicted holding a knife or sword. With his feet suspended above the ground, he floats, becoming an angelic figure. Below his feet rests a set of dumbbells, which Xavier says are meant to “represent the weight and violence of Blackness felt throughout our communities, as well as the delicate balance of prosperous life and tragic death in Black life.”
“PIETÀ”, a re-staging of Michelangelo’s famous sculpture of the same name, is the only image in the series that features two subjects. It shows Jesus laying on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. Xavier’s interpretation, however, departs from the classic work by centering a non-binary individual as the wounded Jesus figure. Clad in a thorny crown and billowy white dress, the two figures represent a clearly differentiated time and place from that of Michelangelo’s sculpture.
Xavier’s photographs challenge norms around who and what is deemed sacred. In a powerful essay accompanying the series, he shares how his upbringing conditioned him to see signs of God all around him, and to “seek out the divinity of everyday life.”
“We exist on both the physical and divine planes,” he writes. “Religiosity coincides with many aspects of Blackness regardless of our spiritual practices; it informs our daily lives.”
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Credits
All images courtesy of the artist.