Chloé Duplessis: Sister Rosetta: An Art Exhibition Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library Cousins Gallery

2401 Welton Street, Denver, CO 80205

June 1–August 31, 2024

Admission: free

Review by Zoe Ariyama

It’s 2:00 p.m. when I turn onto sunbaked 24th Street and spot the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library. Located in Five Points—a historically Black neighborhood in Denver—Blair-Caldwell holds a full-service circulating library on its first floor, the Wilma J. Webb Archives Research and Reading Room on its second, and the Western Legacies Museum and Charles R. and Dorothy E. Cousins Gallery on its third.

A view of the façade of the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library located in the Five Points neighborhood in Denver. Image by *DARIA*.

On a 92-degree day with no clouds in sight, Blair-Caldwell welcomes folks in with air conditioning, space to read, and a host of resources on the history of African Americans in the Mountain West. What I’m looking for, though, is Blair-Caldwell’s newest addition: the exhibition Sister Rosetta by artist Chloé Duplessis.

An installation view of Chloé Duplessis’s exhibition *Sister Rosetta* in the Charles R. and Dorothy E. Cousins Gallery at the Blair-Caldwell Library. Image by *DARIA*.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the “first guitar heroine of rock & roll,” in the words of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. [1] But for all her undeniable contributions to American music history, Tharpe is still not quite widely known. “I couldn’t believe more people weren’t familiar with her,” says Duplessis. “I resolved then to begin researching her life, with the intention of telling the story of this American music pioneer and founder of rock-n-roll.”

Two works by Chloé Duplessis: on the left: *99 1/2 Won’t Do*, wall hanging of burlap, twine, and dried flowers; on the right: *Old Time Religion*, twine, denim, and dried flowers on wood, 16 x 20 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

After Duplessis approached Blair-Caldwell about collaborating on the exhibition, the library commissioned the artwork that would become Sister Rosetta, some of which will enter the Special Collections upon the exhibition’s close.

A detail view of Chloé Duplessis’s *Rock Me*, photo collage on electric guitar. Image by *DARIA*.

Sister Rosetta opens with a timeline of Tharpe’s relatively short, but incredibly rich life. Born Rosabel Etta Atkins in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, in 1915, Tharpe began performing at the age of 6, singing gospel and playing her guitar in churches in Chicago and across the South. Before long, she started recording records, appearing on iconic stages like the Apollo Theater and the Grand Ole Opry, and collaborating with stars, including Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie.

Chloé Duplessis, *Can’t No Grave Hold My Body Down (An Altar for Sister Rosetta*), burlap, twine, paper, and vinyl on wood, 7 x 4 feet. Image by *DARIA*.

Her songs climbed the “race” charts—a separate ranking for music marketed to African American audiences. At her third wedding, Tharpe held a “joint wedding-concert” attracting nearly 20,000 fans “who cheered as the bride play[ed] electric guitar from center field.” [2]

A display of magazine covers featuring Rosetta Tharpe, a concert flyer, and a handmade World War II-era electric guitar. Image by *DARIA*.

One fact Duplessis highlights is how Tharpe was instrumental to the British Invasion. Tharpe’s 1957 tour of England added fire to the flame of the burgeoning British blues revival—a cultural phenomenon that resulted in the exponential popularity of bands like The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones. But even as the internationally-touring, record-breaking matriarch of rock & roll, Tharpe wasn’t inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame until 2018.

One of the binders in Chloé Duplessis’s exhibition *Sister Rosetta* with the exhibition text in Braille. Image by *DARIA*.

On the table below the timeline poster sit two thick, 3-ring binders, each holding the printed braille version of the text. Since being diagnosed with Stargardt disease in 2019, Duplessis has lost most of her vision and is now legally blind.

A detail view of Chloé Duplessis’s *I See the Light*, Braille version of the timeline of Sister Rosetta’s life, metal, fabric, tape, and paint on canvas, 36 x 48 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

Duplessis now centers accessibility for blind and visually-impaired persons in her projects, and in 2022, she partnered with Denver Elections Division to create an “I Voted” sticker featuring braille and American Sign Language.

Chloé Duplessis, *The Lonesome Road*, burlap and twine. Image by *DARIA*.

A detail view of Chloé Duplessis’s *The Lonesome Road*, burlap and twine. Image by *DARIA*.

In Sister Rosetta, three stand-out works are dresses crafted by Duplessis out of burlap and twine. The artist pivoted to textile work as a means of maintaining an autonomous creative practice as her vision declined. In a piece titled The Lonesome Road, rough swathes of yellow and brown burlap wrap around the mannequin’s body, sewn together with thick stitches of twine. To Duplessis, the dress represents the up-and-coming young Rosetta as she traveled across the Bible Belt with her guitar and voice.

Chloé Duplessis, *Shout, Sister, Shout!*, mixed media collage on wood, 17 x 27 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

Other wall-mounted, mixed-media collage works, such as Precious Memories and Shout, Sister, Shout!, emphasize the physicality of Duplessis’ process, featuring ripped paper, fabric swatches, and fragments of archival images capturing Tharpe in the midst of song.

Chloé Duplessis, *Sit Down*, fabric and paper on antique chair. Image by *DARIA*.

To engage with Tharpe’s innovative musicianship, Duplessis collaborated with guitarist Joe Mazza, who acted as a music consultant for the exhibition. “I did two years of research on Sister Rosetta, but I’m still not a musician, you know?” explained Duplessis, who wanted to prioritize the perspective of a fellow guitarist as much as that of a devoted listener in Sister Rosetta. Sound, however, is notably absent from the gallery. But perhaps this is solely due to its location in a library.

Chloé Duplessis, *Chords and Cases*, collage installation in vintage guitar case. Image by *DARIA*.

The exhibition takes place in just one room in the Blair-Caldwell’s 7,000-square-foot third floor. The rest of the space is filled by the Western Legacies Museum, which, “from early pioneers to present-day heroes, [allows visitors to] follow the footsteps of African Americans who settled the West.” [3] It was state-of-the-art when the Blair-Caldwell opened in 2003, even including a replica of Former Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb’s office, but the museum is dark with missing lights (though recently fixed), broken TV screens, and old audio systems. The gallery space has not seen the necessary maintenance in recent years and has not been significantly updated since it opened.

Two collage works by Chloé Duplessis in the exhibition *Sister Rosetta*. Image by *DARIA*.

Just beyond Sister Rosetta, dozens of glass display cases throughout the library hold treasured artifacts from prominent African American Denverites, including its namesakes Omar Blair and Elvin Caldwell, donated and carefully arranged by family and friends. Medals and plaques, newspaper clippings, group photos, and personal items—a gavel, a nurse uniform, Divine Nine garb—memorialize these individuals. Though they may not have been as famous as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, each case lends the same care to the task of remembrance. Archivists at Blair-Caldwell hope to record oral histories explaining each case and its contents, so their stories are not lost in the coming years.

Chloé Duplessis giving a talk in front of an outdoor mural. Image courtesy of the artist.

More exhibitions like Sister Rosetta are slated for the third-floor Cousins gallery, including a show on acclaimed photographer Burnis McCloud, who documented Black Denver throughout the mid-twentieth century. It will pull from some 100,000 photographs by Burnis held in the Special Collections. These projects bring historic materials out of storage and into view—a task central to the Blair-Caldwell Library’s founding mission to reflect and serve the surrounding Five Points community, and which will hopefully continue to inspire artistic responses.

Zoe Ariyama (she/her) is a writer/reader currently located in Denver. She holds a BA in art history and political economy from Tulane University, and focuses on projects considering Asian American makers, institutional memory, and the oddities of the art market.

[1] From https://rockhall.com/inductees/sister-rosetta-tharpe/.

[2] Text from the timeline document on display in the exhibition.

[3] See https://history.denverlibrary.org/about-blair-caldwell-african-american-research-library,