Recently on view at the Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College, Hank Willis Thomas‘ We The People was a visually arresting exhibition that paired formal rigor with conceptual urgency. Featuring a selection of works across multiple media – sculpture, retroreflective vinyl, lenticular prints, textiles, and neon, the exhibition invites viewers into a layered encounter with American history, identity, and collective memory. What initially appears bold, sleek, and visually accessible gradually reveals itself to be far more complex, asking viewers to slow down, look closer, and confront the histories embedded beneath the surface.

Thomas’ work has long explored how images shape and distort our understanding of race, power, and citizenship in the United States. In We The People, that inquiry takes on particular urgency. The exhibition’s title itself echoes the opening words of the U.S. Constitution, immediately situating the work within the unresolved tension between American ideals and American realities. Throughout the gallery, Thomas presents works that function as metaphors: they are eye-catching and contemporary, yet they conceal difficult truths that only emerge through active engagement. The exhibition suggests that history is not absent or forgotten; rather, it is often hidden in plain sight, obscured by comfort, denial, or the insistence that “everything is fine” and that the past is best left undisturbed.

One of the most striking works in the exhibition is the retroreflective vinyl piece What Happened On That Day Really Set Me on a Path, which draws from a globally recognized photograph of Dorothy Counts-Scoggins at age fifteen. The image documents her first day integrating Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1957. At first glance, the work appears subdued: Counts-Scoggins walks calmly alongside a family friend, while the figures in the background seem faded, almost erased. The composition initially reads as restrained, even distant.

However, the work transforms dramatically when light is introduced. As light hits the surface, the once-muted background figures come into sharp focus, revealing an angry mob of white students shouting and harassing Counts-Scoggins. Thomas’s use of retroreflective material makes the viewer complicit in this revelation and only by actively shining light on the work does the full truth emerge. The piece operates as a powerful, literal metaphor for the “whitewashing” of history. It underscores the idea that historical violence and resistance do not disappear, they are merely rendered invisible unless someone is willing to illuminate them.

Elsewhere in the exhibition, Thomas shifts the focus from moments of historical rupture to scenes of everyday life, challenging viewers to reconsider how Black American presence has been framed and remembered. The retroreflective vinyl work Remember Me features what appears to be a simple postcard image of a Black man standing outdoors holding a firearm. Across the postcard, handwritten in cursive, are the words: “Remember me.” The message is intimate and direct, yet deeply ambiguous. Who is this man? Why does he want to be remembered? Is this a personal keepsake, a declaration, or a quiet demand for recognition in a society that so often erases Black lives?

The power of Remember Me lies in its restraint. Thomas does not offer easy answers; instead, he allows the image to sit with the viewer, provoking questions about visibility, legacy, and the selective nature of historical memory. The work highlights how even ordinary images can carry immense political and emotional weight when viewed through the lens of race and representation.

Taken as a whole, We The People is a compelling and thought-provoking exhibition that navigates the space between beauty and discomfort. Thomas’s work acknowledges the rhythms of everyday American life while insisting that those rhythms cannot be separated from histories of exclusion, resistance, and resilience. The exhibition ultimately reminds us that the promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” remains unevenly realized. We The People does not offer resolution, but it does demand awareness…urging viewers to bring their own light, to look beyond the façade, and to reckon with the truths that continue to shape who “we” are.♦