Nikki S. Lee and polyculture

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Blair Uhlig

In Cathy Covell Waegner’s “Performing Postmodernist Passing”, the photographer Nikki S. Lee is highlighted as an example of ‘passing’ in visual media. By ‘passing’, Waegner means the ability of an individual to appear as a different race and integrate into that particular racial society. Waegner focuses on one work in particular, in which the Asian American Lee passes and poses as a black woman. Lee has other works in this series which Waegner does not discuss, but which I think are notable: she poses as a white woman in front of a confederate flag, a female stripper, a lesbian, an old white woman, a Hispanic woman, and a few others.
In her work, Nikki S. Lee truly exemplifies what Waegner explains as “polyculture”. Lee’s ability to change from one race to another so easily demonstrates that “the stereotypes used to determine socioethnic groups are encoded and foregrounded” (Waegner 225). The idea of separate and distinct ethnicities is inherent in multiculturalism, while polyculture suggests the porousness of ethnicity. As Lee demonstrates, the aesthetic (what someone looks like, where they are, how they dress, how they act) as interpreted by the viewer determines race.

A Nation in Suspense

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Charmaine Charmant

I really enjoyed Pinder’s article on biraciality in contemporary American art because it called my attention to race relations in the U.S. through describing what Pinder refers to as the “racial crossroads of the 20th century”. By providing examples of drastically different notions of racial hybridity, she shows how the disparity of opinions leaves the nation in suspense, and delves into what representations of racial hybridity represents in contemporary America. What I found most interesting was the biracial individual’s shift from tragedy to trendy in the eyes of the American people. For example, in the 19th Century Tiger Woods would have been looked down upon due to his racial background whereas now, images of people like Tiger Woods that represent racial hybridity are viewed as symbols of unity amongst the American people. Pinder also goes into the difficulty that people of mixed race backgrounds experience when trying to place mentally themselves within the fabric of western civilization: “the west divides its ability to comprehend good/evil and black/white, the way in which it makes oppositions in everything. Not just simple oppositions but hierarchical, superior/inferior oppositions… so that one is always better than…” (394) This part of the passage truly grasped my attention because it verbalized a way of thinking so deeply embedded within our society that I never even noticed or bothered to question. This divisive comprehension can be seen below in Lorraine O’Grady’s piece The Clearing.

Pinder: Pinder brings different notions of racial hybridity in contemporary America to the forefront and discusses what images of biraciality in contemporary art represent.

Waegner: Waegner examines the trend of yellowface/blackface impersonation through Hip Hop art.

Identity Negotiation Within the Hip Hop Community

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Asia Young

Pinder: Contemporary artists, such as Lorraine O’Grady, explore the issue of biraciality and its “good” and “bad” dichotomy within our society.

Waegner: Through the negotiation of ethnicity and identity, artists in “Performing Postmodernist Passing” depict the trope of yellowface/blackface in their work.

Hip-Hop Project (1), Nikki S. Lee, (2001)

I am intrigued by Nikki S. Lee’s yellowface/black face impersonation in the Hip-Hop Project (1) (2001), in which she immerses herself into the predominately African-American hip-hop community in the Bronx. Despite her negotiation of identity, and “playful postmodernist passing” (Waegner, 223), Lee is suggesting that in order to be accepted you have to become an insider which can play into the reality of social and cultural isolation if one is an outsider. I would argue that in this image Lee still appears to be of Asian identity, which questions the success of her passing. However, since hip-hop is a “cross-cultural portability” (Waegner, 225), having Lee pose as her true South Korean self would change the reception of this photo. I would then interpret this image as hip-hop crossing social and cultural barriers, as it does today, regardless of race and ethnicity. One does not have to identify with a certain type to appreciate a specific genre of music, which is not what I interpret this image to portray. What about the Latino/a community within in the Bronx that is a part of the hip-hop community? Lee’s impersonation of a woman of African descent rejects the diversity of such community, making it race-specific and stereotypical.

Biracial “Borrowing”

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Gabriella Andriulli

Pinder: Pinder examines multiracial identities and representations in art, claiming that “transraciality” can be seen as a harbinger of unity and hope.

Waegner: In this piece from AfroAsian Encounters, Waegner argues that the “new” blackface/yellowface we see in art and pop culture alike constitutes a sort of polycultural borrowing and a “playful postmodernist passing”.

Though I found Waegner’s piece intellectually stimulating, I left it feeling uncomfortable and skeptical. Despite my valiant attempts to like her claims of “polycultural porousness” and of ethnicity as a Butler-esque performance, in the end I couldn’t stomach them. Even though Waegner claims that the examples she brings up are not minstrelsy, I had difficulty with some of them. She admitted that Tuff was a problematic example, but what of R. Kelly’s video? Waegner points to “an informal student survey” to claim that most students were not offended by the music video, saying, “It’s just an R. Kelly video.” But I must ask – does that make it OK? Even if these students do not find the video offensive as they view it with “a considerable amount of ironic distance”, should we simply stop there? Curious, I immediately turned to youtube to see R. Kelly’s video for Thoia Thoing, and was admittedly shocked that Waegner would defend this as “playful passing”. Despite her attempts to align this video and the other examples in her piece with postmodernist means of expression and innocent cultural swapping, I remain unconvinced. Underneath Waegner’s eloquent intellectualism, I can only see what I feel would otherwise be called cultural appropriation.

I see this not as an exemplar of ethnic porosity, but of the growing trend in contemporary pop culture towards a sometimes socially sanctioned cultural appropriation. Perhaps I simply don’t get it, but I fail to see how these examples are different from Gwen Stefani’s disturbing troupe of “Harajuku Girls” (If you are unfamiliar with Gwen Stefani’s penchant for East Asian women, you may refer refer to this video.). This piece from Racialicious entitled The Orientalism of Nicki Minaj outlines another example of what Waegner might consider “passing”. I see only the continuation of old stereotypes in these examples – Asian women as exotic, sexually available, and submissive. And while I would love to see Nikki S. Lee’s “Hip-Hop Project” as respectful porosity, it just feels like blackface to me. It makes me – along with all these other examples – feel uncomfortable and ultimately unconvinced of Waegner’s thesis. I look forward to discussing this with my classmates and perhaps deepening/changing my understanding of this work.

The Portrayal of Various Forms of Masculinity

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Asia Young

Golden: This reading explores the over interpreted representations and codifiable images of the Black male and Black masculinity in various forms of media that denies the truth of the black male identity.

Mercer: Kobena Mercer illustrates Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s use of erotic fantasy, ancestral spiritual values, and European elements to create cultural mixing and explains the influence that migration and separation from his Nigerian homeland had on his artistic production of photography.

Looking for Langston: This black and white film portrays the collision of race and sexuality in the queer community.

This week’s film and readings explored the role that sexuality, gender, and race plays in reinforcing and reinventing the various types of Black masculinity, an identity that Ralph Ellison deems as “invisible and overinterpreted” in media. Considered as invisible in society, the Black male is fetishized and given visibility in art, films, and music.

Thelma Golden’s article was of particular interest to me because her exhibition serves as an umbrella to the Mercer article and the Langston film by portraying different stereotypes, cultural-defense mechanisms, and (mis)representations of the Black male as “ultra-violent [and] ultra-romanticized” (22). Golden’s project draws together artists that display the five signposts: 1) the transition from Civil Rights to the Black Power era; 2) blaxpoitation films; 3) the endangered Black male; 4) the death of rhythm and blues; and 5) real life drama. With the exception of the first signpost, the other categories signify the negative perceptions of the Black male and how they are used to create and circulate ill images of Black masculinity. Despite the artists’ attempt to negotiate identity and educate the audience of common racist assumptions, I am skeptical about the reception of outsiders, or non-Black audiences because instead of negating the negative generalizations, these images can reinforce and confirm them. With that being said, I would have liked to see positive images of Black men without the presence of stereotypes.

On a positive note, I do appreciate the diversity in the “Black Male” exhibit because it brings to light how Black culture is commodified through the portrayal of the Black experience both with and without the use of the body. For example, Mel Chin and David Hammons use objects, such as guns, sneakers, and the construction of basketball hoops to critique the commonly portrayed stereotypes of crime and sports within the Black community. Given the absence of the body in these pieces, the audience is still able to interpret the relationship between society’s ills and generalizations about Black masculinity. I wonder if the absence of the body in art offers a more critical critique of the pieces because the presence of the body can draw attention away from status detail, which is significant in identifying characteristics that are not as obvious.

Offering Alternatives

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Meredyth Grange

Golden: Discusses how the exhibition Black Male addressed aspects of invisibility and over-interpretation of black male body.

Mercer: Fani-Kayode’s photography explores the erotic as it relates to black masculinity by employing a ruptured disasporic spirituality and his own positionality as a queer man of African descent to make “interventions at the intersections”.

Julien: There was quite a bit going on in this film, but suffice to say Julien succeeded in queering the archive of the Harlem Renaissance not just with the abundant visual representation of queer black men, by also by neatly balancing representing black queen men as producers rather than as purely subjects and discussing the ways that queer black men can become subjects (i.e. the erotic tourism of white men to Harlem, employing the photos of Robert Mapplethorpe, etc).

All three texts that we were assigned today for class can really be brought together when we explore the bell hook’s quote that Golden presents us which says that the conversation of black male representation is not simply a question of critiquing the status quo, but about transforming the image, creating critical alternatives, and subverting what already exists. This is undoubtedly difficult to do especially because, as Golden points out, sometimes what we consider our “good” representations don’t necessarily offer us new locations and interventions, but stop at reactions to and critique of the stereotypical representations of the black male body created by white producers. What is important about watching Looking for Langston and reading about Fani-Kayode (as well as being offered the various artists in Black Male) is that we are analyzing texts that are offering alternatives that can exist both as new forms for intellectual and cultural exploration and in this presentation up against the images that we have learned so well, they can also exist as critique. Especially evident in Looking for Langston, today’s texts emphasize the importance of being exposed to black producers creating new, interventionist black products. Being exposed to this next step seems especially important since Golden’s framework that she presents the exhibition in really emphasizes the necessity of having three elements present in analyzing the black male body (images that explore the physical and the psyche, images that transform what we are currently being offered in the mainstream, and images that represent true multiplicity).

The Problem with Simplifying Biraciality

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Blair Uhlig

In “Biraciality and Nationhood in Contemporary American Art”, Kimberly Pinder highlights contemporary artists who explore the complexity of multi-racial identity in the US.

In “Eros and Diaspora”, Kobena Mercer explores the sexuality aesthetic in the works of Rotimi Fani-Kayode.

For me, “Biraciality and Nationhood in Contemporary American Art” explored the main focus of this course thus far: how contemporary society constructs racial bodies and the artists who challenge those constructions. The popularity of multi-racial celebrities Tiger Woods and Vin Diesel (and, I would add, Dwayne Johnson and Jessica Alba in more recent years) combined with the often-glorified inter-racial historical relationships are truly the most prominent discourse on bi and multi raciality in the US. This had created the idea that race as a construction in the US will one day cease to exist, as everyone will be an ethnic mix.
But, as Pinder points out, that is just not the case. Contemporary representations and narratives greatly oversimplify the complexity of bi and multi raciality, often ignoring America’s history of immigration, slavery, and genocide. Artists such as Adrian Piper (as we have discussed in class), Lorraine O’Grady, and others discussed by Pinder have used their own biraciality in their works to critique the conceptions/perceptions of race in the US. Rather than glossing over this country’s racial history, these artists address its effects to explore the complexities of multi-racial identities.

The Rejection of Nude Seduction and the Exploration of Sexuality in Malian Photography

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Asia Young

Pariah: This film explores the rocky relationships that Alike has with her family, best friend, and love interest as she struggles with coming out to her family and embracing her sexual identity as a lesbian.

Taylor: Documenta 11, an exhibition that included work from artists all over the globe, creates global awareness while questioning the meaning of globalization in an economic and political context.

Thompson: Artists from Africa and the Diaspora challenge Western representations of Black women as “beasts, nymphs, slaves, servants, and sexual commodities” by negotiating, reconstructing, and decolonizing these stereotypes.

In Decolonizing Black Bodies: Personal Journeys in the Contemporary Voice by Barbara Thompson, I was particularly intrigued by Malick Sidibe’s attempt to negotiate Black women’s sexuality and reject Western notions of nude seduction through photography. In Mali, where female nudity is not accepted, pagnes (wrappers) are worn by women to accentuate their figure and evoke male curiosity. While reading this section, I thought about Olympia, a painting by Edouard Manet that illustrates a Black female servant who is robbed of her sexuality by her worn drapery of fabric. Unlike the woman in Olympia, women in Sidibe’s photos are desirable and able to express their sexuality while being fully clothed. I view Sidibe’s photos as a compromise between being too modest and too sexual, while providing Black women agency and giving them the space to portray their desirability without feeding into the stereotype as “sexual commodities” or promiscuous nymphs.

In addition, I appreciated the freedom of expression and the reinvention of identity that Sidibe’s photography enabled, because it allowed Malian women to explore their desired modern image without risking their reputation and marriageability. His photo studio served as private, safe space of identity negotiation as opposed to the public space of traditional identity outside of the studio.

Lastly, I noticed that Sidibe’s photography focused on evoking male curiosity, instead of curiosity in general, which makes me question the recognition of homosexuality in Malian culture. How do lesbian and queer Malian artists express their sexuality through photography and other forms of media?

Fraser: Bridging the Gaps

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Charmaine Charmant

The Museum Highlights selections really opened my eyes to the art world and its boundaries. Many people, myself included, fail to realize how divisive the arts have become at the hand of professionalism and academia. This is extremely important to note and I believe that groups like Kontext Kunst and artists like Andrea Fraser that dedicate themselves to bridging the gaps between writing, thinking, and making presented in the art world are admirable. Fraser is able to do this through the interconnectedness of her writing, and performances.

One thing that stood out to me about Frasers project art is the way in which it critiques aspects of the culture of art oftentimes simply through representation. Understanding these cultural tendencies is something that I came to learn through Fraser’s work. For example, while reading chapter 9 of a performance where Jane Castleton leads a tour group through the Philadelphia Museum of Art, it became undoubtedly apparent to me who and what the Museum deemed important, as well as what type of people the Museum preferred and catered to. Fraser sums up this notion beautifully in her description of Jane in the end notes where she states:

“as a volunteer, she expresses the possession of a quantity of the leisure and the economic and cultural capital that defines a museum’s patron class. It is only a small quantity – indicating rather than bridging the class gap that compels her to volunteer her services in the absence of capital…yet it is enough to position her in identification with the museum’s board of trustees and as the museum’s exemplary viewer” (Fraser, 110)

Fraser: Through the interconnectedness of her writing and performances, Fraser attempts to bridge the division between ‘writing’, ‘thinking’, and ‘making’ that the professionalization of the artist and intellectual created.

Taylor: Taylor outlines the history of performance art and highlights artists significant to the genre including Abramovic, and Scheemann.

Audience, Accessibility, and African-American Art

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Gabriella Andriulli

A brief summation of works read this week:

A) Raiford: The Black Panther movement used photography to both deconstruct and reconstruct the meaning of the African-American body in order to tailor their public image.

B) Jones: Artists of African descent in Southern California, even with virtually no help from the (white) art establishment, created a flourishing community that translated their lived experiences into art that challenged social injustices.

C) Johnson: African-American artists risk alienating with a single-minded focus on “black solidarity”, something that can prove divisive for the viewers.

Art critic Ken Johnson’s piece on “Now Dig This! Art & Black Los Angeles 1960-1980” is now infamous for the bizarre analysis of the “divisive” nature of African-American art that it contains. Johnson seems to be unable to critique any form of art without comparing it to the work of white male artists. African-American art, it seems, has no intrinsic value – it only has value by its relationship to the art of white men. This de-legitimizes not only African-American art but the artists themselves, people who contribute more than simply race to their work (though race and ethnicity are obviously important parts of their work). Johnson refuses to see “Now Dig This!” as a varied collection of the works of many different artists, stunningly different in their backgrounds and their work alike. For lack of a better phrase, these artists are literally colored by their collective blackness, and Johnson is rendered blind to all else. Furthermore, the incredibly diverse artistic makeup of “Now Dig This!” appears to be ranked by supposed accessibility. Ken Johnson, a white man, feels alienated by the work of these artists (not all of whom are black, yet another point he misses!), claiming that the work “divides viewers between those who, because of their life experiences, will identify with the struggle for black empowerment, and others for whom the black experience remains more a matter of conjecture…those viewing from a more distanced perspective may regard as social realist clichés, like the defiant fist” (Johnson). One must suppose that not only is the work of these artists divisive according to Johnson, but it is actually clichéd! Not to discredit the entirety of the African-American artist community, Johnson does single out a few artists that he feels have succeeded – those who “complicate how we think about prejudice and stereotyping” (Johnson). Such a statement is significantly less inflammatory, yet it is followed by the absurd proclamation that the “art of black solidarity gets less traction because the postmodern art world is, at least ostensibly, allergic to overt assertions of any kind of solidarity” (Johnson). Somehow, solidarity has become passé, or is not nuanced enough in African-American art. Perhaps, following Johnson’s advice, artists of African descent should be less “obvious”, adhere less frequently to “clichés” of social justice and solidarity. Maybe African-American artists and artists of all other backgrounds involved in “Now Dig This!” and similar projects will provide more accessible and less “clichéd” works hinged on issues of racism, oppression, and solidarity, when racism, oppression, and solidarity are no longer a problem, Mr. Johnson.

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The Body: Race and Gender in Modern & Contemporary Art

Category Archives: Photography