“Monuments Are Here” starring Gene “Shady The Great” Thomas, continues Saint Heron’s exploration of Black domesticity, Black collections, the spirituality embedded in our objects, and the constellations we create with them.
We pose the questions:
“What do our objects say about who we are in silence? Who are we through the reflections of their existence? What stories do they intimately teach our loved ones when we aren’t present? Who are we in our homes when no one is watching? What is our right to opacity, and to choose when to be seen or not seen—sometimes claiming that right through confrontation?”
“Monuments Are Here” explores these questions through the personal collections of the Grammy Award-winning and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist. Primarily recognized as a vocalist, producer, and member of the legendary funk band Parliament and Funkadelic, Thomas has expanded his passions into the physical composition of personally collected objects of nostalgia.
The artist has quilted a tapestry of futurism, imagination, and self-perception, with each object added to his collection. Amassed over many years of hunting at flea markets, through his travels as a working musician, and from gifts by his beloved children, his objects transcend mere possessions, they live in harmony with him as cherished treasures, cradled in the reverence of his home, and boundlessly connect time and space.
In “Monuments Are Here” Thomas’ artifacts hold fragments of history and sentiment that have woven themselves into the creative curiosity essential to his identity. Among the treasured relics are an oxidized bronze boxing sculpture awarded to him from his early days as a boxer, a collage of Thomas himself in handmade clip art filling a standard silver portrait frame, and a sign of his love for football represented by a Franklin helmet and chin guard, blessed with a solid purple—his signature color—sharpie marker stripe down the center. No musician's journey through life goes without sound, and in Thomas’ starship, a JVC stereo adds the perfect extraterrestrial touch. A series of demos titled “Hot Fudge Brownie,” sequentially numbered, marry the polyhistor’s passions for both sonic art and object preservation. His futuristic aesthetic is complemented by a multi-faced spherical picture frame that freezes happy faces and embraces tender family photographs.
The film also probes the cultural impact of the iconography of the Crown Royal purple bag as a Black domestic object and a symbol of safekeeping for our most precious items. We explore the purple bag’s immortal life in Black households. For Thomas, the purple sack has long served as a sacred holder for his collection of gold and silver watches and other purple jeweled jewelry. In “Monuments Are Here”, the purple bag is showcased holding a miniature wind-up music box that plays Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender,” to which he performs a casual singalong, followed by opera and doo-wop singer Mario Lanza’s “Be My Love,” a song Thomas and his mother often enjoyed together.
The short film also births a beautiful collaboration between its creator and writer Solange Knowles, and director Nuotama Bodomo. The two artist reflect on the histories of journeys into home, intimate space, and the worlds contained within object’s their energies. In these worlds, time is pliant; bending and stretching, revealing glimpses of past, and future transformations and discovery.
Even when small in stature, the objects are monumental story keepers and moment guardians holding universes within their form.
When reflecting on Thomas’ legacy and the impact of posture he has made, we envision his collection as enduring symbols of time, and Thomas himself as a monument. The objects depict his story beyond words, illustrate his life beyond visage, exemplify his feelings beyond emotions, and signify his life experience beyond time and space into tangible immortality.
