Artist, activist, and community organizer Tom Lloyd (1929–1996) was an early pioneer of using electric light as an artistic medium. Collaborating with an engineer at the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), Lloyd developed a highly experimental and technologically advanced art practice in the 1960s that challenged popular understandings of what role the work of Black artists should play. Employing a purposely limited vocabulary of colors, forms, and shapes, Lloyd advocated for a relationship between abstraction and blackness that was greatly debated at the time, and one that continues to animate conversations around artistic practices. Over a period of about four years in the 1960s, Tom Lloyd created electronic light sculptures that drew inspiration from New York City’s flashing lights. Narokan is one of the earliest sculptures from this body of work. The sculptures use both everyday objects, such as Christmas light bulbs and plastic Buick back-up light covers, and industrial materials provided by engineers at Radio Corporation of America (RCA). —300gsm Munken (textured) paper, 5.8 × 8.3 in.Tom LloydNarokan1965Aluminum, light bulbs, and plastic laminate11 1/2 × 18 1/2 × 5 in. (29.2 × 47 × 12.7 cm) Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Darwin K. Davidson1988.3
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