Ann “Sole Sister” Johnson transforms everyday materials into powerful historical testimony. The experimental printmaker and Prairie View A&M professor brings her signature approach to the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum’s “Terms & Conditions: The Promise vs. Reality,” using cotton, brick, and an ironing board to tell the story of freedom’s arrival in Texas. Her installation captures the moment Union troops reached Galveston’s shores while honoring the individual stories of the United States Colored Troops who carried freedom’s message.
Johnson, whose acclaimed “Converse: Real Talk” series has been exhibited from Houston to Harlem, creates work that bridges personal and collective Black histories. For this exhibition, she employs transfer prints and intaglio techniques to render horses on brick—a direct reference to Houston’s Freedmen’s Town and its historic brick-paved streets where newly freed people built community. Named one of the most transformative artists of 2023 by Black Art In America, Johnson continues her mission of making art teachers “the new history teachers,” teaching art in context with political, ancestral, and social history.
Can you describe your artwork featured in the exhibition and walk us through your creative process?
I am an experimental printmaker. The printmaking process I used for this exhibition is transfer prints and intaglio. I’ll include work that was created to address the moment the troops arrived in Galveston to announce Freedom. The images focus on the horses arriving via the beach, and in the far distance are troops and now former slaves. The purpose of this piece being brick, represents Freedmen’s Town in the center of Houston. Freedmen’s Town is the location where the newly freed men and women formed a community. The community is known for its brick-paved streets, which is why the image is printed on bricks. Guests will see images of a Union soldier printed on cotton in a flag box tell its own story. What rests at the bottom of the box tells a deeper story. The direction of the boxes points to the upcoming announcement of freedom. I am so fascinated by a young boy named Taylor, originally photographed as a slave in tattered clothing, who eventually will become a drummer boy for the Union army. Printing him on an ironing board acknowledges perhaps the spirit and presence of his mother. Cotton, drumsticks, and cowrie shells represent his past, present, and future.
How does your piece speak to the meaning and legacy of Juneteenth?
The intentions of my pieces are to create a moment of the soldiers appearing on horseback to relay the message of freedom. I also wanted to implement the stories or history of the USCT soldiers.
What role do you believe art plays in preserving and communicating Black culture and history?
Art teachers are the new history teachers. We are able to teach art in context with our political, ancestral, and social history.
How does your work reflect or challenge the social realities we live in today?
Although my work has been created to represent the Civil War and the US Colored Troops, the battle for equality, representation, and respect still exists today.
Do you see your piece engaging with themes of Afrofuturism or reimagining Black futures?
No, I do not consider this body of work AfroFuturistic.
What personal stories or emotions did you draw from when creating this work?
Cotton and African American history in itself is emotional. Printing faces on cotton humanizes the struggle.
