And The Presence of Light
Weston Gallery
Cincinnati, OH
January 2021
"And The Presence of Light” — In 1853, a group of eight enslaved women left one of the nine Dobyn’s family farms that held enslaved persons in Mason County. At great risk to themselves, the women brought an adopted 4 year-old child with them, in their pursuit of the possibility of a future. This child, Lee Howard Dobyns, accompanied by his adopted mother and siblings fled Kentucky, crossed the Ohio River, and traveled north intent on reaching Lake Erie, and Canada. However, the boy was too sick to continue the journey, and it was necessary to leave him in the care of a family in Oberlin, Ohio with the intention of rejoining his people in Canada upon recovery. Lee Howard Dobyns died among strangers at four years of age in Oberlin 9 days later and is interred there. He experienced his first moments as a free person upon touching ground on the Ohio side of the river, however, this child never saw Lake Erie, or reached soil beyond the grasp of bounty hunters. We know the boy’s name. We know where he is interred. However, the women who carried this young child with them, have been lost to history.
Presence is the first intentional Gesture composed in homage for these women, and was installed a few blocks from the Ohio River in Cincinnati at the Weston Art Gallery.
Photo Credit: Sly K. Yeo