Alison Saar’s “Topsy Turvy,” her new exhibition at LA Louver, looks to the sixties for strength: the 1860s.  Painted on linen and canvas, carved in wood, and shaped from tin, Topsy the slave girl from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Civil War era novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin looks back with no shame in her game. The hair says it all.

Alison Saar, Topsy and the Golden Fleece (2017), wood, tar, steel, ceiling tin, wire, acrylic paint and gold leaf. 35 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. © Alison Saar. Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA. Collection of The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.

Kinky, wiry, and braided, the hair stands up and stands out. Saar twists and bends bundles of black wire to form each lock in Topsy and the Golden Fleece (2017), the first figure in the main room at LA Louver. To her right and the viewer’s left, Wrath of Topsy (2018), the bust formed from reclaimed tin ceiling tiles, purses blue lips. Pursed blue lips and tin tile forms continue with the five standing figures: Rice (sickle), Cotton (bale hook), Indigo (hoe), Sugar cane (machete), Tobacco (tobacco knife) (all 2018). Balls of cotton, cast in bronze and painted bright white, project from the braided locks of each Topsy.

Alison Saar, Wrath of Topsy (study), 2018, acrylics on indigo dyed seed sacks and vintage linens. 46 x 42 in. © Alison Saar. Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA.

Saar paints High Cotton (study), 2017, the study for these five sentinels, on canvas and linen seed bags, dyed indigo blue. The blue lips match this indigo night sky while the white balls attached to Topsy’s hair blend with the ripe cotton ready for picking in the background. The slave master’s tools rest in Topsy’s hand: sugarcane machete, tobacco knife, indigo hoe, rice sickle, and cotton bale pick. Her hands create his wealth no more. She rises up, stands tall, and asks the viewer to stand with her on the side of justice. 

Alison Saar, Rice (2018), wood, copper, ceiling tin, bronze, tar and vintage found tools. 64 x 30 x 25 in. © Alison Saar. Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA.

Alison Saar, “Topsy Turvy,” March 28 – May 12, 2018, at LA Louver, 45 North Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA 90291. lalouver.com