Hank Willis Thomas 'Successful Woman'

Unlike most art works, which are created either using paint, or was sculpted from mold, the chosen art piece was created using gas filled tubes more commonly known as to the public as neon. Hank Willis Thomas’ piece, entitled Successful Woman/Angry Men, is a neon sign hung against a white background in a darkly lit space to make the piece more readable. The thin letters of the sign are yellow, though in a lighter hade, which spelled out underlined words saying “Successful Woman” and “Angry Men,” with a slash put in between the two phrases. While the bright light emitted from the slash and the underline remained lit, the light alternately flashed from from the words “Successful Woman” to “Angry Men”. A couple of letters of the sign were not
All throughout history, men were considered to be in charge of getting jobs and making money for the family while the women stayed at home with the children to take care of the daily chores. Through out time, society has evolved to include women in the work space and were, too, able to prove themselves successful in their field, and at times, even more successful than their male peers. However, for some men, the sight of a woman more successful than them caused them to to feel threatened and even intimidated, proving, as the artist put it, “Successful Woman” and “Angry Men.” The artist’s intention for making the chosen piece was to perhaps raise more awareness on the matter and to convince those men “angry men” to put their ego aside and stop believing that giving a woman a chance will have a negative affect on their life. Additionally, the artist added the slash as it could have been used as an analogy, which is a comparison between one thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it. When you have a “successful woman,” you will start to see or get “angry men.” It may have also been added to show a cause and it’s affect on
Thomas chose neon as a medium for the reason that light easily attracts the viewer’s attention and emphasizes ideas. Due to the bright light, it manages to say something out loud without the material or piece itself being too intense. I believe that the artist’s purpose of flashing the phrases “Successful woman” and “Angry men”, instead of keeping them lit like the underlines and slash, was to surprise us or to keep us waiting. Flashing lights is also another way to get the viewer’s attention and keep them from looking away due to the fact that our eyes keep going back to them. Bright lights forces our eyes to look at it, talk about it, and even go towards it. Additionally, the artist may have chosen the color yellow for the light as it is a powerful and intense color, able to invoke strong feelings and quickly grab one’s attention, which corresponds well with the viewer. The use of the underline also helped in allowing the viewer to retain the message as underlining is usually used to emphasize something, meaning it that something is important or that it should be remembered. The artist may have kept the slash and the underlining light to further emphasize the