The work of Tschabalala Self is inspired by the cultural iconography
of Black female bodies, mapping the points where questions of race, gender, and sexuality intersect.
Strongly identifying as a dancer, she seeks to complicate the boundaries of dance and the place
of black female bodies within the form.
«Florine Demosthene is a Haitian - born artist currently based in New York City whose work explores stereotypes and representation
of the black female body.
Questions of miscegenation, hybridity and the contours
of a black female body as landscape deemed, for all intents and purposes as «ungeographic» (after all, where is «black»?)
While on the West Coast, she created a new body of work that was shown this past summer at L.A. gallery, The Cabin; «Tropicana» continued Self's investigation
of the black female body through figurative collages composed of paint, fabric, and dry leaf.
This term is a means to navigate the residue of history through examining the exotification, and the perception
of the black female body when taken out of context through the view of the other.
These pieces explore personal narratives from the artist intermingled with known and unknown historical figures in relationship to notions and constructions
of the black female body as a prototype for both exotic beauty and repulsion.
According to Finn, ««Mentors, Muses, and Celebrities» is a timely and important celebration
of the Black female body.
Ashton Cooper talks with Self about her depictions
of the black female body, the characters she creates, and the power of parties.
Valérie Oka, Ivorian - French artist addresses the dehumanising and objectification
of the black female body while provoking the viewer into an act of looking which involves procedures of translation and the questioning his own implicit role in the perpetuation of these prejudices.
In the year and a half since finishing her MFA at Yale, 26 - year - old Self has garnered a wide audience for her dynamic representations
of the black female body.
The works allude to questions of lineage, context, and the imaging
of the black female body.
This term is a means to navigate the residue of history through examining the exotification, and the perception
of the black female body when taken out of context through the view of the Other.
In attempting to read the work the viewer is provoked into confronting histories of appropriation and consumption
of the black female body.
Thematically Siwani's work interrogates the patriarchal framing
of the black female body and black female experience within a South African context.
By inserting them into the western art - historical canon, black women are given visibility, provoking a conversation about the representation
of the black female body in popular culture, its absence from that canon, and how much this visual representation in art has evolved over time.
Drawing from their shared limbo - land experience of African - American vs American - African, both women investigate urgent questions of race, identity politics, and the objectification
of the black female body.
Sampling such diverse sources as African traditions, international politics, the fashion industry, pornography, and science fiction, her work explores gender, race, war, colonialism, global consumption, and the exoticization
of the black female body.
Not exact matches
The Wrestler and
Black Swan both explored embodiment, and painfully, graphically exposed what happens when we objectify and abstract
bodies (male and
female) from their connection to the rest
of the human.
@M1sf1ts I spent most
of my adult life as a registered nurse with many
of those years as a theatre nurse and I saw that whether a person was a saint or a sinner, gay or straight,
black or white and even male ot
female their heartsd all looked the same, their brains all looked the same and besides their reproductive system, their
bodies looked the same: Believe it or not they all bleed the same.
My friend however disagreed with me, citing there are physical attributes that make us who we are (
black, white, male,
female, etc....) and by being transplanted into that
body we take on those characteristics and thus the
body holds a key piece
of our «soul» or personality that effects any brain within.
If someone were to go insane because
of going from white male to
black female, doesn't that at least hint there's something intrinsically tied in to the human
body and not everything is in the brain?
From the 1970's, the little
black dress started shrinking in size and / or revealing much more
of the
female body.
An investigative documentary team sets out to uncover the true story behind the
Black Water murders, a series
of brutal killings where mangled
female bodies were found dumped in the woods, completely devoid
of blood.
Unsurprisingly, Persepolis has attracted the wrath
of the Iranian government, but more captivating than the film's depictions
of cultural repression (a scene where Marji, out to buy a
black market Iron Maiden album, is beset by weasel -
bodied female Guardians
of the Revolution because she wears a jean jacket and «punk» sneakers is but one well - handled example) are its more understated portraits
of Iran's intellectual elite, at once removed from the proletariat it so pompously champions and sadly delusional about the real threat
of the fanatic trajectory
of the revolution.
Those who are interested in grisly crime mysteries will already recognize the subject
of Ellroy's book as the infamous «
Black Dahlia» murder, where a young
female drifter named Elizabeth Short (Kirshner, According to Spencer) was murdered, her torso cut in half, and her
body drained
of blood.
A
Black female actor with short black hair, a height of 5» 7» — 5» 9», and a weight of 120 — 140 pounds is wanted for the second body do
Black female actor with short
black hair, a height of 5» 7» — 5» 9», and a weight of 120 — 140 pounds is wanted for the second body do
black hair, a height
of 5» 7» — 5» 9», and a weight
of 120 — 140 pounds is wanted for the second
body double.
Black - Sheep Feminists: A Subset
of Feminist Artists Pushed the Limits
of Body Art, Political Correctness, and
Female Sexual Agency; Today Their Work Is More Influential Than Ever ALISON M. GINGERAS
His portrayal
of the
black body — both
female and male — represented a shift in our perceptions
of African - American masculinity,» Salon 94 Founder Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn said in a statement.
Tschabalala Self is a visual artist based in New York who builds a singular style from the syncretic use
of both painting and printmaking to explore ideas about the
black female body.
Director
of the Studio Museum in Harlem Thelma Golden probes renowned artist Lorna Simpson on the challenges
of representing the
female black body, and her complex (and not completely amicable) relationship to feminism in this Phaidon excerpt.
NY - based photographer Aaron McElroy has been exploring details
of the
female body and views
of American suburbia in the
black & white series Traces and his more recent colour prints.
Oscillating between two separate works, Thomas's painted homage to Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech
of Black female empowerment, «Ain't I a Woman,» and a religious altarpiece, Diptych presents the sexy,
Black female body sculpted out
of flat planes
of primary colors in two dimensions on the left (a gesture reminiscent
of the painterly techniques
of her idols Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden), and in a televised two dimensions on the right.
She notes that her work is a process
of «demanding respect» for the
black female body that has always been understood as a spectacle.
Neptune creates counter-narratives which examine pedagogies
of resistance,
black subjectivity and the nuances
of identity construction amongst marginalized
female bodies of color.
Photographed in
black and white, the
female models»
bodies and clothing have synergy with the graphic backdrops constructing the scenes: a curve
of the waistline in the foreground
of one woman merges into the calligraphic line
of the background.
In this interview excerpted from Phaidon's Contemporary Artist series book Lorna Simpson, Golden probes Simpson on the challenges
of representing the
female black body, and pushes her to confront her complex (and not completely amicable) relationship to feminism.
In her earlier
black and white series «Graces,»
female bodies are coupled with classical European goddess heads to create a sense
of dissonance.
For her performance Purge, Garner recreates the monument to Sims that stands in Central Park, enacting the very gynecological surgery that Sims became famous for upon this silicone
body with a group
of Black female performers.
Spread over the first floor
of the Wiels in Brussels, the exhibition
Body Talk, curated by Koyo Kouoh (Raw Material Company, Dakar), is an emotionally and politically charged questioning of the female Black body as a repository for a post - colonial critique of po
Body Talk, curated by Koyo Kouoh (Raw Material Company, Dakar), is an emotionally and politically charged questioning
of the
female Black body as a repository for a post - colonial critique of po
body as a repository for a post - colonial critique
of power.
The Retrieval, a solo exhibition
of works by Bay Area artist Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, features a large
body of works that respond to the disappearance
of Black women and
female - identifying women due to various abuses and the current human trafficking trade in the Bay Area and beyond.
Criminality, judgment and the legacy
of legal and rhetorical violences perpetrated on
Black female and trans
bodies turn up in the exhibition's introductory work, Jafa's girdled and corseted self - portrait «Mary Jones.»
Past artists who have created work for Rivington Place's window include Philomena Francis who used piped
black treacle in her artwork mo» lasses III to raise questions about identity and viewing the
black female body, and most recently Nilbar Güres» Beekeeper, a photographic composition examining representations
of femininity and cultural identity.
While, in these series, she placed her
black female body into spaces, like museums, where
black women have historically been underrepresented, Weems, in Scenes & Take, celebrates the renaissance
of television shows with strong
black lead characters by
black creators like Shonda Rhimes and Lee Daniels.
Viewers are allowed to move her limbs, becoming complicit in a long history
of controlling
black female bodies.
On the airplane flying into Saudi Arabia, the artist's mother would
black out, using a marker, all the exposed parts
of female bodies from the latest «Vogue» magazine in order to bring them into the country.
Her performative sculptures, both made between the 1960s and today, combine nylons filled with sand and ritualized movements to explore the dual fragility and resilience
of the human
body — and the
black female body in particular.
In her work she often references
Black female theorists such as Audre Lorde (1934 - 1992) to question the misrepresentation
of the
female and the
Black body in society and culture.
The
black bodies, and specifically
black female bodies and their representations, are a pervasive theme throughout her
body of work and her adaption
of Norma is no exception.
African American Vernacular Photography reproduces 70
of Cowin's most exceptional color plates with essays by Brian Wallis, Director
of Exhibitions and Chief Curator at the International Center
of Photography, and Deborah Willis, MacArthur Fellow and author
of Reflections in
Black: A History
of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present and, with Carla Williams, The
Black Female Body: A Photographic History.