Like French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, Wardell Milan seeks to examine the essence in mind of humanity in an attempt to reconsider and redefine the existence of the human body. This is a collage made of photos from Robert Mapplethorpe's "The Black Book," a photographic study of Black men from 1986. To create this piece, Wardell placed the collage on top of a silverleafed panel and placed a real orange Gerber daisy on top of the collage. When I first saw this piece, I immediately noticed this bright daisy in the foreground much larger in scale compared to the piece's other components. In the background, Milan depicts the Black male body in complete and missing parts, barred from the flower by a harsh white wall-like texture that contrasts the vibrancy of the flower.
Perhaps this relates to the location of the billboard being right outside the gates of the school, further signifying the Black body being barred from something. For me, flowers are objects I've always associated with delicateness and fragility, characteristics I believe have often been denied to Black men. Black men have been viewed and portrayed as aggressive and hypermasculine in the media, and they've been raised to take on the role of the strong Black man in hopes of surviving a world not built for them, stigmatizing the display of emotion and mental health in the process. I think this piece represents Black boys and men's desire to break past that barrier and forge an identity outside of the one the world has created for them. I think it represents their desire to be vulnerable and to express vulnerability without it being considered a show of weakness or inadequacy, that they can be strong, but also at times, like a flower, delicate.
–Maya Moore ’26