The rolling grounds of the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden and Museum near Austin’s Barton Springs are dotted with bronze pieces, their patinas letting them almost blend in with the scenery. But up close, they’re vividly detailed. A refugee holds a baby in gnarled hands, molded by American artist Charles Umlauf—the garden’s benefactor and namesake—in 1945. John the Baptist stares plaintively at the sky in a piece from 1957. Cast in stone, a woman closes her eyes in exhaustion, perhaps despair, while an emaciated child asks for warmth. This piece, “War Mother,” is from 1939.
These permanent installations are from a different time, but they share the same spirit as the temporary exhibit on display through January 25: “Black Bird Redemption Song,” a mixed-media exhibition by renowned North Texas artist Sedrick Huckaby that explores issues of race, justice, and freedom—the plight and fight of Black Texans from 1921 through today. Huckaby’s exhibition argues that seemingly distinct social problems, past and present, are largely made up of the same materials.
“It’s all connected—that’s the whole thought,” Huckaby said at a public talk at UMLAUF in January. “It’s about social justice, and I think if you look at wrongful conviction, incarceration, [lynching], you’ll see that those things are intertwined.”
