The Churn

Get Afrofuturistic at the SCAD FASH Ruth E. Carter Exhibit (PHOTOS)

Mike JordanApril 22, 2021

Now that Atlantans are getting vaccinated and therefore a lot more comfortable going to indoor public events, many people are realizing just how much they’ve missed over the past year. Thankfully, the Ruth E. Carter Afrofuturism in Costume Design exhibit, which launched at SCAD FASH on December 17, is hanging around through September 12, meaning you’re not too late to get there and check it out.

The entrance to Ruth E. Carter’s exhibit

Ruth E. Carter won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design in 2019 for her work on Black Panther, making her the first African-American to win the category. But the extraordinarily talented designer’s worthiness of high acclaim didn’t begin with the African superhero and other characters in his corner of the MARVEL universe.

Carter’s SCAD FASH exhibit takes fans and visitors on a journey from the beginning of her stellar career to her most recent designs, starting with Do The Right Thing.

The outfit worn in *Do The Right Thing* by the character Radio Raheem, played by the late actor Bill Nunn

Spike Lee’s breakthrough film about race relations in Brooklyn, New York, was where Carter got her start. She met Lee after moving to Los Angeles in 1986, and was convinced by the Atlanta-born, Morehouse-educated director to move from theater costume design to film.

Lee hired Carter for School Daze, his 1988 film inspired by the HBCU life he experienced in college. As Carter is a graduate of Hampton University in Virginia, she was able to put together an authentic look for Black colleges and universities of the period leading into the ’90s, helping to make School Daze a classic portrayal of campuses for young African-American adults.

Sketches and clippings from the early part of Carter’s career

Carter went on to work with Spike on several other films, including Do The Right Thing, and Malcolm X. The latter earned Carter her first Best Costume Oscar nomination, although the award went to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. She was later nominated for her work on Steven Spielberg’s 1997 historical drama Amistad, again missing the award — this time to Titanic.

Carter’s Afrofuturism exhibit contains evidence that she had no doubt about the award being hers at the 2018 Academy Awards. The dress she wore to the Oscars that year, displayed behind glass walls with multiple mirrors behind it, shows viewers a small golden crescent moon, hanging above the back of the dress from the sparkling gown’s jewel-studded necklace, in the reflection.

Ruth E. Carter’s gown from the 2018 Oscars, where she won Best Costume Design

In Wakandan language, it called her an Oscar winner. She claimed it.

Along with displays for the other nominated films, Carter’s exhibit includes mannequins wearing costumes she kept from other wardrobe collections, such as Shaft, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, The Butler, Selma, the 2016 television remake of Alex Haley’s Roots, and Eddie Murphy’s Dolemite is My Name.

Costumes from the Eddie Murphy film *Dolemite is My Name*

Costumes from the movies *Shaft* and *I’m Gonna Git You Sucka*

Costumes worn by the actors who played Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah), Martin and Coretta Scott King, and John Jewis, in the movie *Selma*

Costumes from Carter’s work on the TV miniseries remake of *Roots*

Just a few weeks ago, the exhibit received designs from Carter’s work on Coming 2 America, the Amazon Studios sequel to Eddie Murphy’s classic comedy movie.

Costumes worn by the royal court of Zamunda, including Gladys Knight’s

Eddie Murphy’s tourist look from Coming 2 America

And of course, the centerpiece of the exhibit is Black Panther, with the original costume worn by the late Chadwick Boseman, the Killmonger outfit worn by Michael B. Jordan, and assorted tribal and royal uniforms of other cast members like Daniel Kaluuya, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, and Lupita Nyong’o.

Assorted costumes, including Chadwick Boseman’s, from Black Panther

The Killmonger outfit worn by Michael B. Jordan

The overall effect is an up-close look at Carter’s overwhelming genius and distinct gift for transforming colors, textures, fabrics, cultures and time periods into visible and wearable pieces of art.

A video of Carter speaking about costume design plays behind the designer’s first sewing machine, which she loaned to the exhibit.

And now that she’s got her first trophy — and made history in the process — it’s a good bet that as long as she’s designing costumes she’ll be adding more trophies and more amazing award ceremony gowns to her personal collection, far after the SCAD FASH Atlanta exhibit closes.

In the meantime, head over to see her brilliant works and pay Black creativity, from the past to its Afrofuturism next imagined chapters, some well-deserved respect.

Tickets to see SCAD FASH’s Ruth E. Carter Afrofuturism in Costume Design exhibit are available at ScadFash.org. Also showing in the gallery through September 5, 2021, is the photography exhibit Albert Watson: The Light Behind the Lens.

Gallery capacity is limited and timed tickets are required for all guests.