The Sweet Scent of Magnolia

Whitfield Lovell: The Kin Series and Related Works is on view through January 8, 2017.

 The subtitle of Whitfield Lovell’s Kin VII draws an immediate connection to “Strange Fruit,” a protest poem about lynching made famous by singer Billie Holiday in 1939. The startling pairing of a male figure with a red and pink bouquet of silk flowers is reminiscent of the song’s ironic contrast of the sweet scent of magnolias with the smell of burnin’ flesh. And yet, as with all his work, the artist seeks to open up many possible meanings depending on the perspective of the viewer. 

As scholar Kevin Quashie has written, “Are these flowers from his room, a private and unusual explosion of color? The flowers he gave to a date or the ones he brought to a funeral? A sign of his desire to visit all the world’s spectacular gardens? … [Or] a more ominous reading—his killed body marked by a wreath … we can wonder if he loved pink and purple tones, without ignoring the possibility of racist violence. Whatever the story, the flowers are a surprise that interrupt the dominant narratives that might be ascribed to the profile of a black man of that age.” 

Strange Fruit 
Southern trees bear a strange fruit 
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root 
Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze 
Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees 
Pastoral scene of the gallant South 
The bulgin’ eyes and the twisted mouth 
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh 
Then the sudden smell of burnin’ flesh 
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck 
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck 
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop 
Here is a strange and bitter crop 
–original poem by Abel Meeropol, 1937