THE Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) has acquired LaToya’s striking installation Roby Frazier More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers in Baltimore, Maryland 2021-2022 (2022). The artwork consists of 66 inkjet prints depicting portraits and didactics mounted on 18 socially distanced steel intravenous drip poles, a solemn reflection and monument to the role of community health workers (CHWs) – including many are women of color – at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The work was donated to the BMA by the Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Maryland. More than conquerors presents an alternative methodology to commemoration, centering marginalized voices and communities disproportionately impacted by America’s for-profit healthcare system. Originally developed for the 58th Carnegie International exhibition in Pittsburgh, More than conquerors won the coveted Carnegie Prize before arriving at New York’s Gladstone Gallery this spring. The facility will begin its tenure at the BMA in 2025, where it will launch a year-long environmental outreach initiative.
“More than conquerors reflects the distinct quality of LaToya Ruby Frazier’s artistry and her innate ability to encapsulate stories of deep personal and community meaning,” BMA Director Asma Naeem said in a statement. “The installation offers a poignant tribute to some of the most important but under-recognized heroes in our community.
Frazier’s work on More than conquerors grew out of his relationship with Lisa Cooper, Bloomberg Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity. Frazier was inspired to develop a project to tackle healthcare inequities after he faced discrimination while trying to get a Covid-19 vaccine. She was drawn to focus on the lives and stories of chronically underappreciated CHWs, who help underserved populations navigate America’s notoriously byzantine healthcare systems.
“People seemed to understand the role of doctors and nurses in the pandemic, but CHWs didn’t. They weren’t heard or seen as the heroes they are,” Cooper told Johns Hopkins. Hub publication.
With support from Cooper and Johns Hopkins, Frazier was able to connect with Tiffany Scott, co-founder and president of the Maryland Community Health Worker Association, which eventually led to the artist meeting and photographing a group of CHWs actively involved in vaccination efforts between 2020 and 2021. More than conquerors highlights the human aspect of their stories by raising their voices: in the texts accompanying each portrait, the subject of each image tells their story of getting involved in community health initiatives. The resulting installation complicates public expectations of what a monument should look like.
“As each CHW spoke, it was loud and clear that this is an invisible workforce that wants to be seen and heard, that deserves their work, their care, their advocacy and their mutual aid are made visible and tangible on a monumental scale,” Frazier said. THE Hub.
“As with all monuments, the significance of More than conquerors is inseparable from its location,” Emily Wei Rales, director and co-founder of the Glenstone Museum, said in a statement. “For this reason, we were inspired to donate this work to the Baltimore Museum of Art so that the community of workers would also be the primary audience for this powerful installation.”
