Ernest and Ruth

Ernest and Ruth was commissioned for the Museum Park in 2015. According to the artist, the sculpture is intended to serve as interactive benches that invite people to sit and think about how they “inhabit their own speech and beliefs.” Hank Willis Thomas created these comic book-inspired speech bubbles from steel plate and pipe. He named the work after his grandmother, Ruth Willis, and her father, Ernest Holman. 

I’m very much into interactivity in work and work that inspires viewers to become participants.

Hank Willis Thomas

Thomas is a conceptual artist who lives and works in New York. He often uses symbols and imagery from American pop culture in his work to explore themes of race, identity, history, mass media, and consumerism. Much of his artwork is inspired by events from the civil rights movement and his experience as a Black American. Thomas creates a wide range of art forms: sculptures, public art installations, photography, screen-printing, neon, and mixed media.

Ernest and Ruth is popular on social media. Museum Park visitors regularly post photos of themselves sitting inside or standing near the sculpture. 

All of my work is about framing and context and how, depending on where you stand, it affects what you see. And as a photographer, these works are frames. The idea of not only making images but making work that encourages other people to make images is really exciting.

Hank Willis Thomas