Lifestyle
For painter Titus Kaphar, forgiveness is 'a weight lifted off of your shoulders'
Artist Titus Kaphar has a new film out called Exhibiting Forgiveness. He’s shown above with his artwork From Whence I Came, ahead of his 2022 exhibition at the Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill gallery in London.
Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
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Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
Contemporary painter, sculptor and installation artist Titus Kaphar is known for taking classical forms of art and deconstructing them to reveal hidden truths that challenge historical narratives. His 2014 painting, “Behind the Myth of Benevolence,” for instance, peels away a portrait of Thomas Jefferson to reveal the face of Sally Hemings, a woman who Jefferson enslaved.
Now, with his debut film Exhibiting Forgiveness, Kaphar deconstructs his own life story. The film centers on a celebrated painter whose world unravels when his estranged father, who struggles with addiction, suddenly reappears in his life.
Kaphar says he initially conceived of the project as a documentary. He was visiting his maternal grandmother in Kalamazoo, Mich., and was surprised to see his estranged father sitting on her porch: “Kind of on a whim, I said to my father, ‘If you want to talk, let me film you. There’s a lot to be accounted for.’ And I was hoping he would say no, but he said yes.”
Kaphar filmed their conversation, but the resulting documentary was unsatisfying: “I showed it publicly in the theater one time and decided I don’t want that in the world,” he says.
So he abandoned the documentary project and instead decided to make a feature film that would present his father as a character. The writing process proved to be surprisingly emotional. Kaphar says he had always seen his father as the villain, but writing the character forced him to consider what his father’s motivations might have been.
“I gained a compassion, a sympathy for my father that I never had as a young man,” he says. “The film, for me, is about generational healing, about how does this generation make sure that our children don’t have to carry the same wounds and baggage that we carry? Is there a way for us to leave it here so that they can go on without that burden?”
Interview highlights
On wanting to make a film so that his work would be more accessible to working class, poor and Black communities
I don’t question painting. I love that. That’s, like, in my heart. It’s one of the things that I know that I was made for, but the reality is … the place I grew up does not look like the place where I am now. And the people who engage with my work often don’t come from that world. And let me be clear here. I’m not just talking about race. I’m talking about class as well. I feel blessed to be able to do what I do every day. I mean, I make paintings and people pay me to do that. It’s kind of ridiculous. … Museums all over the country have my artwork. But the folks I grew up with, they don’t go to the Metropolitan [Museum]. Like, we don’t have a Metropolitan in our neighborhood. … So I felt like I wanted to find some other way to engage with my folks.
Film is a much more democratically accessible medium. You don’t have to be a rich man to go to a movie. And nobody makes you feel uncomfortable when you walk into a movie theater. You can just walk in, watch a movie, or eventually you’ll be able to watch it in your home. That was incredibly important to me because as I went into more gallery spaces, I recognize how uncomfortable they are. This beautiful, big white space where you are the only Black face in that building. There is some fancy person sitting at the front desk and you don’t know, Do I need to pay to get in? … And then you see these paintings on the wall and you’re like, These are interesting, but I don’t know anything about them. That kind of elitism that one feels when they’re in those spaces doesn’t help people connect to the art at all.
André Holland is a painter and John Earl Jelks is his father in Exhibiting Forgiveness.
Roadside Attractions
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Roadside Attractions
On seeing Black men emote and cry in the film
We weren’t told that it was OK, that we could cry. That was something that we had to suppress. That was something that it was necessary for us to hold in. We grew up in a kind of a rough spot. You didn’t want people to see you [as] weak. That meant you were vulnerable. And if you were vulnerable, the opportunity to take you was there. … That became another thing I began to understand is, like, … this was for our protection. And I don’t agree with doing that to your children. I have to believe that love and compassion and kindness and care, those things are the things that we offer to our children and that will bring them to a place of peace and wholeness. But at the same time, recognizing that the world that I grew up in, the neighborhood that I grew up in, was fundamentally different from the neighborhood that my children are growing up in.
On chasing his dream to be a painter
There are definitely many times where I felt unwelcome. But … I wasn’t going to allow those feelings or those individuals to stop me from getting what I wanted. And what I wanted was the knowledge, this secret knowledge of how to paint like these people I was seeing in my books. I couldn’t figure out how that was happening. I got a brush, I got paint, I got oil — but it’s not doing that. So I need to sit at the feet of the masters and figure this out.
Titus Kaphar was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 2018. His paintings have been displayed in the Museum of Modern Art, the Seattle Art Museum and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, among others.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images North America
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Emma McIntyre/Getty Images North America
On a painting of his being sold for over $1 million on the secondary market
Most folks see those numbers and are like, “Man, Titus is doing really well!” I’m doing all right. But the reality is that secondary market people take those to auction houses. … The person who bought it [originally], that’s the person who makes the money from it. None of that goes back to the artists. None of it. Not a dime. So you might have bought that painting for … $12,000, which was not bad for me at the time. But I think something like five years later it was auctioned off for $1.2 [million].
On his TIME magazine cover, “Analogous Colors,” inspired by George Floyd calling out to his mother as he died
I was broken-hearted by the words of George Floyd. I was inspired by the words of my mother. And when George Floyd died, I felt like giving up, man. I didn’t want to talk to people. I was getting phone calls from folks, like “Come to a public talk here,” I said, “I’m not doing that. I’m not I’m not doing that because y’all want me to be, like, hopeful right now. I ain’t hopeful.” And so I called my mom and I was just talking to her and she wasn’t doing well. And my mom was just talking about how she has four sons and all of us have had some kind of run-in with police before that could have ended up exactly the same way. That was the thing that inspired me to make that painting. I was thinking about my mother and her fear of losing her boys.
On forgiveness and reconciliation
We use forgiveness and reconciliation as though they are synonyms. … They’re not synonyms. You may find yourself in a situation where you need to forgive somebody who is no longer alive. And in that case, how can there be a reconciliation? You can’t do that. …
I think it’s important that we recognize that forgiveness, most of the time, has more to do with us than it does to do with them. And so, for me, the kind of forgiveness that this film is talking about is a kind of forgiveness that allows you to unburden yourself and say, “I’m not carrying this anymore. It’s too heavy. I’m done with it. You had a debt. You owed me something. You don’t owe me no more. I’m good. I’m going to let that go.” And in saying that, there is freedom. There’s a weight lifted off of your shoulders.
The part that I think we get wrong is I think we assume that that means that you have to continue on the path with that individual. And we often have this idea about forgive and forget. I’m not sure that I believe in that wholly. I mean, sometimes it happens, I suppose. But the reality is oftentimes we are telling victims to forget for the sake of the perpetrators. We have these wounds. We have scars. … I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be telling people to forgive and reconcile … when it means that they are putting themselves back in harm’s way.
Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
Neve Campbell in Scream 7.
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Paramount Pictures
The OG Scream Queen Neve Campbell returns. Scream 7 re-centers the franchise back on Sidney Prescott. She has a new life, a family, and lots of baggage. You know the drill: Someone dressing up as the masked slasher Ghostface comes for her, her family and friends. There’s lots of stabbing and murder and so many red herrings it’s practically a smorgasbord.
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Abriana Vicioso is the host of the Flower Hour, which takes place monthly.
(Jennifer McCord / For The Times)
Each flower carries a personal history. For Abriana Vicioso, the calla lily was her parents’ wedding flower — a symbol of her mother’s beauty. “She had this big, beautiful white calla lily in her hair,” Vicioso says. “I love my parents. They’re the reason I’m here. I’ll never forget where I came from.”
The Flower Hour begins with Vicioso announcing, with a warm smile: “Today is about touching grass.” The florist-by-trade gestures behind her to hundreds of flowers contained in buckets — blue thistles, ivory anemones and calla lilies painted silver — all twisted and unfurling into the air. “Tonight is going to be so sweet and intimate,” Vicioso says, eyeing the beautiful chaos at her feet. A grin buds across her face.
Moments before the workshop, participants sit at candlelit tables exchanging horoscopes and comparing their favorite flowers. A mention of the illustrious bird-of-paradise flower elicits coos and awe from the women. Izamar Vazquez, who is from Jalisco, Mexico, reveals her fondness for roses, which make her feel connected to her Mexican roots.
Vicioso hosts her flower-themed wellness workshop near the iconic Original Los Angeles Flower Market in downtown L.A. In January, the first Flower Hour event sold out, prompting her to make it a monthly series. Vicioso describes the event as a “three-part journey” where participants are invited to drink herbal tea, smoke rose-petal-rolled cannabis joints and create a floral arrangement. “The guide is to connect with the medicine of flowers,” Vicioso says.
Rose petal joints, tea and flower arranging are all part of The Flower Hour event’s offerings.
The event is hosted at the Art Club, a membership-based co-working space. “The Flower Hour is really beautiful. Everyone gets to explore their creativity while meeting new people,” says Lindsay Williams, the co-owner of the Art Club.
The idea for Flower Hour came to Vicioso during a conversation with her mother. “We joke all the time that flowers were destined to make their way into my life,” she says. She works as a florist and models on the side, even appearing in the pages of Vogue. Vicioso grew up in a Caribbean household, where flowers and offerings were part of daily life. “In my culture and religion, a lot of my family practices — an Afro-Caribbean religion — we build altars.”
Like many cultures, flowers carry sentimental value in her religion. “I’m Caribbean, so a lot of my family practices a Yoruba religion, which comes from Africa. In the Caribbean, it’s well known as Santería.”
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After a difficult year and a breakup, Vicioso wanted to marry her love of flowers with community building. Because Vicioso uses cannabis medicinally, the workshop naturally includes a smoking component. “My family has smoked cannabis for a lot of reasons for a long time. It’s a really healing plant,” she explains.
In the workshop, even the cannabis gets the floral treatment. Vicioso presents her rose-petal-wrapped joints on a silver platter at each table. She rolled each by hand. “If you’ve never smoked a rose-petal-rolled joint, the difference with this is it’s going to have roses that have a slight tobacco effect,” she announces.
During the workshop, Vicioso stresses the importance of buying cannabis from local vendors. The cannabis provided was purchased from a Northern Californian vendor. The wellness workshop aims to reclaim the healing ritual of smoking cannabis. “This is a plant that has been commercialized,” Vicioso says. “There’s a lot of Black and Brown people who are in jail for this plant.”
The resulting workshop is what Vicioso describes as “an immersive wellness experience that is the intersection of wellness, creativity, community and an appreciation of flowers.” The workshop serves as a reminder to enjoy Earth’s innate beauty in the form of flowers — including cannabis. “It’s this gift that the universe gave us for free and that I have this deep connection with,” Vicioso says.
Conversation cards to generate discussion among participants (top, letf). The workshop serves as a “third space” for Angelenos to engage in tactile creativity and community building outside of traditional nightlife settings.
After enjoying lavender chamomile tea and smoking a joint, Vicioso introduces the flowers to the group before inviting them to pick their own. She emphasizes each flower’s personality traits, describing green dianthus as a “Dr. Seuss” plant. Then, there are calla lilies with their “main character moment.” It gets personal. “Start thinking of a flower in your life that you can discover,” she says. “If you’re feeling like you need inspiration, you can always remember that these flowers have stories.”
Vicioso infuses wisdom into her instruction on floral arrangements: There are no mistakes. Let the flowers tell you where they want to go, she urges. Intuition will be your guide — the wilder, the better.
“Hecho in Mexico” reads a sticker on a bunch of green stems. “Like me,” says Vazquez with a laugh. “They’re all doing their own thing. Like a family,” she says later, arranging stems.
The Flower Hour participants and Vicioso, center, chat as they build their own floral arrangements at the sold-out event.
Two participants — Vazquez and Rebeca Alvarado — are friends who run a floral design company together called Izza Rose. Like Vicioso, the friends have a connection to flowers through their Latin American culture. They met Vicioso in the floral industry and were overjoyed to discover her workshop.
“This is a great way to connect with other people,” says Vazquez.
Alvarado agrees, adding: “You’re getting to know people outside of going to bars. You can connect in different ways when there’s an activity.”
Vazquez uses flowers to stay connected to her Mexican heritage, adding that she prefers to support Mexican vendors. In recent months, the downtown L.A. flower market has struggled to recover from ongoing ICE raids. “Some are scared to come back,” says Vazquez.
Hand-rolled cannabis joints wrapped in rose petals are presented on a silver platter at The ArtClub (top, right). The Flower Hour aims to reclaim the healing rituals of cannabis and flowers.
Another participant, Barbara Rios, was attracted to the workshop for stress relief. “You can hang out with your friends, but it’s nice to do things with your hands,” she says. “I work a stressful job, and it’s nice to have that third space that we’re all craving.”
On this February night, the participants were predominantly women, save for one man. In the future, Vicioso hopes that more men learn to engage with flowers. “There’s a statistic about men receiving flowers for the first time at their funerals, and I think we have changed that,” she says.
To conclude the workshop, Vicioso encourages participants to build lasting friendships and incorporate flower arranging into their daily practice — even if it’s just with a small, inexpensive bouquet.
“Get some flowers together, go to the park, hang out with each other and hang out with me,” she says. Participants leave with flower arrangements in hand. In the darkness of the night air, it briefly looks as though the women carry silver calla lilies that are blooming from their palms.
An underwater view shows US’ Lilly King competing in a heat of the women’s 200m breaststroke swimming event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, on July 31, 2024. (Photo by François-Xavier MARIT / AFP) (Photo by FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT/AFP via Getty Images)
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This week’s show was recorded in Bloomington, Indiana with host Peter Sagal, judge and scorekeeper Bill Kurtis, Not My Job guest Lilly King and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Josh Gondelman, and Faith Salie. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.
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