Typographies of segregation. Technologies of torture. Algorithms of surveillance. Systems of Reproduction showcases Black artists who expose design as a medium for making—and unmaking—the power of race in American life from the era of colonial slavery to the present day. Their work asks the questions: How do the visual languages of blueprints and diagrams manifest the logics of racial capitalism? How do structures of white supremacy take form through processes of craft, assemblage, and fabrication? How are technologies of digital media, large-scale data computation, and automated surveillance reshaping how people fashion and refashion racial identities in social spaces?
From Glenn Ligon’s refraction of antebellum print graphics to Adam Pendleton’s mirrored display consoles, the artists in this installation use design to make visible the systems of racial reproduction that otherwise evade figurative representation and seem impervious to direct protest. Working at the turn of the twenty-first century, they use design techniques and materials to represent race-making as an ongoing process that links past and present, self and society. They at once reveal race as a design practice while implicating design professions and ideas in the history of race in the United States.
Systems of Reproduction is organized by Chris Dingwall, assistant professor of design history in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, in conjunction with his fall 2025 course “Graphic Design History” and his research in the entangled histories of race and design.