AshARH411

David Hammons, Flying Carpet, 1990 image source David Hammons often uses his art as a commentary on racial stereotypes so it’s not surprising that when critics viewed his Concerto in Black and Blue they were quick to offer up the description of African American art. The problem with the way that critics reacted to this installation was not that they identified it as such, but that they then ironically used racial stereotypes to further describe the installation highlighting the point the artist was making. In the introductory chapter of How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness, Darby English uses an art installation by David Hammons to illustrate the problems black artists face when critics refuse to see past racial stereotypes. Concerto in Black and Blue was a 2002 installation that consisted of nothing more than an empty gallery, some blue pen lights, and the viewers themselves. The idea was that the viewers became the art, and that the definition of blackness lies within the prec...

Jill Posener’s, series ‘ Dirty Girls Guide to London' (1987), ( image source ) In Framing the Questions: Positive Imaging and Scarcity in Lesbian Photographs, Jan Zita Grover discusses how gatekeeping positive images in lesbian photography is central to keeping the already “scarce” images from creating negative stereotypes in a marginalized subculture, but that it comes at the expense of identiy loss and exclusion within the subculture.(1) Grover begins her argument by pointing out that photographs aren’t really meant to depict reality to begin with. Most often, photographs are an idealized version of reality that exaggerates its representation and “naturalise(s) the unnatural.” Commonly, photos are trying to sell us something whether it be a product or an ideal, and by thinking of photographs in this context it would follow that lesbian photography should be no different. What matters here is not the gatekeeping, but that lesbians are being represented. It is important that the r...

 Keith Braveheart image source   “There is no Lakota Word for Art. I am only doing what I was born to do.” (1) These are the words of Keith Braveheart, the artist featured above. Words that seem to highlight one of the main points of this week's author Margaret Kovach in her article “Indigenous Methodologies Characteristic, Conversations, and Contexts.” Kovach speaks on the importance of language, ritual and metaphysics in the attempt to understand indigenous methods of research and knowledge. The colonization of the Americas created a displacement from the land, language, and culture for many indigenous people. For some, like Kovach, this has created a duality of Western and indigenous culture that is difficult to untangle so by studying indigenous epistemologies Kovach hopes to better understand her Plains Cree roots. (2) Indigenous epistemologies are like a choreographed dance between the cosmos and the people. It is important to remember that the epistemologies differ from...