In Stony the Road, American artist Dawoud Bey (b. 1953 in Queens, New York) places himself in a Richmond, Virginia corridor steeped in historical trauma. Touring the city with a desire to understand its colonial, constitutional past, the artist visited the Slave Trail, of which only three miles remains, in an effort to understand the region's history and empathize with enslaved people who had no choice but to walk the narrow promenade. The photographer has long participated in history-based projects, and it was for this reason that curator Valerie Cassel Oliver recommended Virginia, believing it would complement the artist's past endeavors: street portraits in Harlem, photographs narrating an imaginary escape from the Underground Railroad, and now, a march along what remains of the Slave Trail. The exhibition presents a black-and-white photographic series "Stony the Road" (2023), and corresponding film 350,000 (2023), which capture the weight of Richmond's history within the confines of a constrained space.
