Urethane resin, wood, audio monitors, DVD player
Variable dimensions
2001
Richard Humann • Possessions for Judgment Day, installed at Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
In Possessions for Judgment Day, Richard Humann brings together the language of the blues, the voices of children, and the symbolism of wealth to explore the relationship between hardship, memory, and human value. Exhibited at Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas, the multimedia installation features blues lyrics by both celebrated and local Texas musicians. The lyrics were transcribed, laser-cut from plastic, and cast in urethane to resemble gold bars, which were displayed on pedestals at the center of the gallery.
The transformation of song lyrics into gold bars gives physical form to a different kind of wealth. The blues emerged from lived experiences of struggle, loss, injustice, resilience, and survival. By casting its words in the shape of precious metal, Humann elevates these expressions of human experience into objects that resemble material treasures. The work asks what we choose to preserve and carry with us when material possessions lose their value.
The same lyrics were read aloud by young children from Houston’s Fourth Ward. Recorded at the historic Eldorado Ballroom and mixed and mastered at Sugar Hill Studios, their voices introduce a striking contrast between the innocence of childhood and the hard-won perspectives expressed in the songs. The children’s readings are both beautiful and haunting: words shaped by the experiences of adults emerge through voices that have barely begun to encounter the world themselves.
The title, Possessions for Judgment Day, suggests a reckoning in which conventional measures of wealth and status may no longer matter. The gold bars appear to be objects of value, yet what they preserve is not money or property but the words of people who have endured and interpreted life through music. The children’s voices further shift the meaning of possession, suggesting that cultural memory and human expression can be inherited across generations.
By combining the material appearance of gold with the emotional weight of the blues, Humann considers what remains valuable when life is measured beyond material accumulation. Possessions for Judgment Day presents music as a form of cultural inheritance, preserving the testimony of one generation while allowing another to give it voice. What appears to be a collection of precious objects becomes an archive of human experience, asking what we ultimately possess that is worth carrying forward.
Richard Humann • Possessions for Judgment Day, installed at Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
Photo credits: Richard Humann Studio