Post-Post Critiques of Racism

Power dynamics covertly reside and yet overtly employ themselves in our society, our knowledge, and even our subjectivity. The perceived identities of ourselves and those of others are riddled with power dynamics. For example, our identity is established through looking and differentiating ourselves from others. As a result, the dominant narratives of marginalized communities are able to firmly root themselves through the imaging and representation of these communities in the media. Cindy Sherman and Yasumasa Morimura are two photographers who are seeking to resist and critique these ideologies. Through performative portraiture, the two artists engage in identity politics, intervening in these dominant representations to recreate and challenge the dominant narrative. Sherman focuses on women’s representation in film, while Morimura explores the relationship of

In Jennifer Baichwal’s The True Meaning of Picture, she focused on the subject of American photographer Shelby Lee Adams’ works. Adams’ pieces emphasize the culture people in poverty from the Appalachian Mountains. Baichwal also spends some time focusing on the controversy of the photographer’s images. The documentary shows direct quotes from Adams himself, the subjects of his pictures, the subjects’ family, and even art critiques. The film collides the views of all these people so that we may learn more about the Appalachian people. Throughout the course of the documentary, the

Hank Willis Thomas’s work addresses the intersection of race, history, and visual culture. According to Thomas’ description of his own work, he states, “For me, photography was about being genuine in your approach to whoever you were trying to photograph and why. But also not being confined by notions of the truth because any time you’re dealing with photography you’re talking about the truth as something that’s subjective. Don’t limit your creativity just by what you are able to capture in the camera. Try to figure out innovative ways to work around that, if necessary” (Anonymous 112). Thomas’ innovation and creativity is apparent in Zero Hour. The artwork of the Contemporary Era is very symbolic and full of cultural importance. Through photography

The intersection of social movements and Art is one that can be observed throughout the civil right movements of America in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. The sixties in America saw a substantial cultural and social change through activism against the Vietnam war, women’s right and against the segregation of the African - American communities. Art became a prominent method of activism to advocate the civil rights movement. It was a way to express self-identity as well as the struggle that people went through and by means of visual imagery a way to show political ideals and forms of resistance. To examine how a specific movement can have a profound effects on the visual art, this essay will focus on the black art movement of the 1960s and

In the article, “Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, and the Culture of the Great Depression” by James C. Curtis, we understand what it takes to get the perfect photo to represent a message. Dorothea Lange became very popular during her time and is known especially for her photo, Migrant Mother, which documents life during the Great Depression. James C. Curtis does a good job explaining the artistic decisions to this most famous shot and how many different steps Lange took in order to really create a powerful message depicting life in poverty.

Hank Willis Thomas is a contemporary African American artist who was born in 1976. His mother is also a contemporary artist as well as photographer, curator of photography, historian, author, and educator. Sanford Biggers is also an African American artist and he was born in 1970. However, his work integrates film, video, installation, sculpture, drawing, music, and performance. Mistaken for each other a lot, due to their race, they decided to work together and make a collection of art that would engage identity and racism. Both artists “engage themes of identity, history, and popular culture,” and desired to portray “racial hybridity” in their artwork (“Hank Willis Thomas”). The photograph they constructed is of Sanford Biggers portrayed as a minstrel in a top hat and tails. His face and clothing are bisected, with the right being black and the left side being white. The color contrast was man made in this photograph, alike to the racial divide that separates our world. As the viewer approaches the image and walks to the left or right the color dichotomy disappears. The viewer is in control of the perspective of the image; we are in control of the racial divide that plagues our

Renee Cox, as an African American woman and artist, uses her body and identity to start a discussion on the Black experience in America. Besides representing a population of minority artists, the female and the non-white, her art has affected society with her brazen approach to her craft. Cox’s significance comes from her open display of race and sex. In many of her pieces, nudity and the celebration of the African American experience is the focus. In addition to this, her medium of choice, mixed media and photography, is opening an outlet of art that isn’t traditionally used. In essence, Renee Cox is an artist that can pave the way for future artists by diversifying through medium, race, and sex.

A single photo can tell thousands of stories about people that have been silenced in the past or those who are still silenced today. This is the case for the photograph titled “Oppression” by Luke Moore. In such a simple picture, the author is giving voice to the women who have been mistreated, killed, raped and oppressed. This treatment against women is not new and has been implemented all over the world. Moore uses line, character, and color to appropriately demonstrate the fight women have against oppression and the responsibility society has on this oppressive system.

Carrie Mae Weems is an African American artist, who works with text, fabric, audio, digital images, but mostly known for her “Kitchen Table” photography series. Her art is focused around the serious issues African American have to face in the United States every day.

In general appropriation in the art movement of postmodernism, borrows, copies, and alters preexisting images and objects to challenge traditional notions in art. In artist Kehinde Wiley newest art exhibit, “Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic,” he appropriate cultural images, and characters from one context and places them it in another. Using juxtaposed inversions to challenge traditional elitist, white male-dominated, “high” historical art culture. As a self-identified homosexual African American man raised in Los Angeles in the 80’s, it is evident a significant part of Kehinde Wiley artists inventions derive from his own personal experiences and beliefs. By appropriate white

Personal and cultural history are considered some of the main driving elements in artists and people in everyday life, they help the individual learn values, customs, history, and the way that ancestors interpreted and felt about life in their time. It involves how we communicate with others and the manner in which we communicate, with the diversity of languages and cultures we have today it allows for everyone to have their own form of interpreting culture allowing for personal and cultural history to intertwine and become one. Artist Kara Walker is an African American woman who grew up reading and learning about the history of the African Americans during the times of slavery and colonization in America, and as a result her work depicts the historical events of the time. Her connections are represented in her work by her ability to build narratives of past events she’s learned of and at times making her own stories based on her feelings and opinions on the subjects. Her shadow artwork is made to represent people, emotions,

As the United States sank into the Great Depression, a photographer named Dorothea Lange turned her attention away from studio and portrait work toward the suffering she was seeing around her. On the day that she took Migrant Mother, in Nipomo, California, Lange had just begun her journey home to San Francisco when she saw a roadside sign reading ‘PEA-PICKERS CAMP’. She initially ignored it, but after travelling twenty miles she turned around and drove back to the camp, where she approached a woman whom she has described as a ‘hungry and desperate mother’ and took six photographs of her and her children, moving closer to them each with each shot. In 1938 Lange retouched the negative for this image/ Lange chose to partially remove the image of the woman’s thumb on the stick to the right. In the title Lange knew little or nothing of the women so she chose to name it Migrant Mother.

Pictures are used throughout literary work to assist authors in portraying an idea. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” which is why Lila Quintero Weaver decided to use images to support her ideas in her graphic novel, Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White. Her graphic novels looks back at her childhood when she moved from Argentina to Mobile, Alabama during the era of Jim Crow’s laws and the Civil Rights Movement. Weaver uses a variety of images to support her idea that racial segregation continues even after segregation had been ruled illegal.

Ever since she was a child, Piper received some sort of ostracism because of her racial identity. She once rebuked an art critic that declared, “it is crucial to know that…Piper is a black artist who can easily ‘pass for white,” to which she responded, “’black’ and ‘white’ are among the terms my work critiques” (Bowles 1). She expressed her feelings not only about how people view her, but also how people view black people in general. This is seen in her pieces such as “The Mythic Being: I/You” and “Political Self-Portrait #2”. In Berger’s “Critique of Pure Racism” interview, Piper asserted that while she finds analysis of racism praiseworthy, she wants her artwork to help people confront their racist views (Bowles 6).

Unfortunately, in this time and age, racism continues to be an issue in the American society, especially in the south. Since the introduction of slavery, many people have the belief that skin color determines someone’s ranking in life. After the freedom of slaves, racism became a big problem in America. As a result, other races look down upon many different cultures and ethnic groups believing that they are superior to others. Racism has lead to people discriminate against one another and become prejudice. Unfortunately, racism effects peoples lifestyles, job opportunities, and education.