“Tea Set for a Homeless Man” is an artwork that resides in a quiet corner on the third floor of the MSC. Since the moment I saw it, I became infatuated by virtually every element of the piece. From the title of the work being painted onto the canvas, to the almost violently red background, to the piercing gaze of the main figure’s head seemingly gazing directly at you. I even found myself enjoying the presence of this piece, going out of my way to sit near it while completing homework in the student center. What captivated me the most about this piece, however, was the mystery. With every element being so mystifying yet blatantly intentional, I had to dig deeper into the themes and origins of this piece.
Before going in depth about the piece itself, it is important to contextualize it by discussing the life and beliefs of the artist, Roger Clay Palmer. Palmer was raised on a ranch in Florida, where he made memories of his family telling stories; with much of his work being a reflection of fondness of his southern background, where story-telling played an influential role within his family and childhood. His works that contain a written phrase within and about the piece, for instance, is an element of his artwork that is reflective of this tradition. Palmer would go on to serve in the Vietnam War, an experience that affected him and his artwork by giving him a new outlook on current events, and how despairing world issues can be. Palmer was discharged from the army as a conscientious objector, or an individual who refuses to comply with orders because they violate their own morals. In 1985, Palmer spent time in Japan, where he was deeply impacted by the art there; namely haiga and Zenga, which are both art forms that incorporate the use of written language. Palmer would go on to have his work featured in many museums throughout Florida, and across the country.
What makes “Tea Set for a Homeless Man” particularly intriguing to me, is the mystery behind each element. This makes the piece open to many interpretations, and only Palmer knows what his true intention was when creating it. Without being overly specific and detracting from the subtlety of the piece, it can be assumed that the central figure of the work is completing a task using makeshift, or publicly accessible tools. Palmer writes in his artist statement “I think the social or political begins to live in a drawing through unexpected situations, allowing one to savor a small fraction of context.” The lack of clarity as to what these items are is an intentional artistic choice by Palmer, reflecting in his art how little context we have for real-life situations we walk past every day. We don’t know what the homeless man is doing– we are just walking by.
The main figure of this piece, however, is the bodiless head, laying sideways on what seems to be something like a bench, with a harrowing expression in his eyes. His lack of body can be another representation of lacking context in most situations; we don’t know what this man is like, how he dresses, where he’s from, or where he’s going. The fact that the head is sideways is also interesting, causing the figure to seem unalert, in a similar position as the items beside him. He would almost blend in with these items, if it wasn’t for how disturbingly human his face appears.
Roger Palmer’s “Tea Set for a Homeless Man” is evidently a harsh commentary on homelessness. Perhaps it is a representation of the struggle that homeless people face, or perhaps it is a critique of how housed people perceive the homeless without any insight or context about their lives. There is a lot that I find really powerful about this work, and it is a rewarding task to look at the art that surrounds us every day and discover the history, and even possibly attribute a meaning.