Contextual Studies

The pictures below are my plans for a piece I’m working on in Graphic Media. I plan to create a large wooden cut out of a futuristic human figure using glitter sand acrylic. I was inspired by Mickalene Thomas’s work as she used mixed the medium of rhinestones and acrylic. I want the glitter to not only add interesting texture but to give an element of the fantastical that Afro-Futuristic Artwork has.

This Article is about the contemporary African-American artist Mickalene thomas. She’s best known for her complex work that's created using mediums such as rhinestones, acrylic and enamel.

Mickalene Thomas’s  mother started off as her first muse which led to Thomas having a creative awakening and proceeded taking glamorous photographs of herself as her alter ego Quanikah. Then through photography, Mickalene Thomas began to explore self, definitions of beauty,the artificial and how they coincide together (pg.2).

Mickalene Thomas wants the viewer to question what bodies are considered beautiful and desirable as in her artwork, A little taste of outside love 2007 (fig 1) 

(Figure 1) A little tastes outside of love 2007

a black woman is posed nude which echoes old master European Paintings where a damsel in distress-like elegant white lady would be depicted as angel-like looking. These images are considered elegant and beautiful and they are displayed in numerous galleries around the world. But would it be received the same if it was a black woman instead? 

The author writes that they do not want to focus on what people initially pay attention to the binged out black female, the sassy-nes and glamour that are stereotypical tropes of black women. 

Tyler Shine recognizes that we must see past these. Mickalene Thomas says that these views are ‘lazy’

“Limiting our attention to what these artists have to say about blackness will surely ‘keep the conversation going,’ it will also prevent the conversation from going anywhere particularly new.” (pg.8)

What interested me about this reading was the ideas of it. It speaks on how Mickalene Thomas tackles how Black women are presented, and the deep rooted issues, beauty and what it means. It has inspired me to think about the topics raised and help me move my Afro-futurism campaign forward. I wanted to take a step back and look at a contemporary artist who I could seek visual inspiration from for my plan to use traditional media for my final outcome.

References

Chris Ofili is a British Painter who uses a range of media such as elephant dung, glitter, resin, beads, oil paint and fragments of Pornographic magazines. 

Chris Ofili is influenced by Artists such as Jean-Micheal Basquiat, George Baselitz, Phillip Guston and George Condo. Chris Ofili is known to be one of the few British Artists of African/ Caribbean descent to become one of the members of the Young British Artists Group.

He’s also enthused by Blaxploitation Films (cheaply made films created by black people made for black audiences), gangsta rap and hip hop.

One of Chris Ofili’s controversies was his artwork The Holy Virgin Mary 1996 (Figure 1) that was featured in the sensation exhibition. The artwork depicts a black Woman as the Madonna and hovering around her are cherubs but with closer inspection are actually cut outs of women's Buttocks Blaxploitation magazines. 

The art work was criticized by the public including New York's Mayor who called the work “Sick Stuff” and the first Lady, The President's Wife who "shared the feeling many New Yorkers have that there are parts of this exhibition that would be deeply offensive. I would not go to see this exhibition" although they had not gone to see the exhibition they knew that a religious icon was ‘smeared’ which is deeply offensive to the religious communities. “When I go to the National Gallery and see paintings of the Virgin Mary, I see how sexually charged they are. Mine is simply a hip-hop version,” Ofili has said (Moma).

What I love about Chris Ofili’s work is that it’s Daring, controversial and bold. I personally feel like his artwork was aimed to be fun yet expressive. He used media that few people would dare to use and challenged people's perceptions and made people feel and react. Although his work is not known as Afro futurism I will keep his way of working in mind as I progress my Graphic media work. I plan to approach something I never have before to make a statement with my campaign.

Ruth Carter is an American costume designer who notably created costumes for Black Panther, Malcolm X and Amistad. 

For the costumes of black panther Ruth carter took inspiration from the indigenous people of africa such as the Maasai (Kenya and Tanzania), the Himba (northern Namibia), the Dogon (Mali, West Africa), the Tuareg (Sahara region of North Africa—Niger, Mali, Libya, Algeria, Burkina Faso), and the Basotho (South Africa).

Ruth Carter had personal shoppers and visited  these countries to gather numerous authentic clothing items from the continent and rejected african fabrics that were inauthentically made in holland. Ruth Carter aimed to preserve and respect the complex nature of African culture and use these in costume design. 

Ruth Carter is proud of the uniform of the all woman warrior group called the Dora Milaje that protects King T’challa the Black Panther Hero in black panther. They are bald, strong  and fearsome yet feminine and embrace masculine strength compared to comics that depict superhero women as sexy, revealing outfits that are blatantly to appeal to the male gaze. The Dora Milaje are elegant and high ranking warriors so Ruth Carter had to create costumes that portray this as in the comics they were very unfit for fighting.

Ruth Carter's work has been one of my inspirations for my Afrofuturism campaign by being one of the most recent examples of Afrofuturism in mainstream media. I used her idea of looking at the traditional aesthetics of African clothing and giving them futuristic silhouettes and shapes. 

The Dora Milaje from Black Panther 2018

References

Boyd Acuff, J., 2020. Afrofuturism: Reimagining art curricula for Black existence. Art Education, 73(3), pp.13-21.

Ryzik, M., 2018. The Afrofuturistic Designs of ‘Black Panther’. The New York Times, 23. 

Below are artists that have been initial inspiration for my artworks. After looking into the book in the black fantastic a Catalog by Ekow Eshun, I was drawn to these Artists :

Alisha Wormsley ‘There are Black People in the future’

Ruth Carter Costume designer for Black Panther

Wangechi Mutu ‘The Seated’

Beddo ‘Comic book cover remix’

After looking through the book ‘In the Black Fantastic’ by Ekow Eshun that features a range of Artworks in different medias by black Artists that have fantastical, fantasy and Sci-fi like themes, I wanted to create Artworks that Echo this for My Afro-Futurism Campaign. The Artworks in the book are in response to or highlight social injustices and racism that Black People have and are facing currently in our society and artists featured imagine alternative social scenarios in their works. For images 1 and 2, I made mixed media pieces using ink and collage. I used individual silver and gold pieces of metallic paper to create the shape of a head then a stark black form using black ink for the figures body. With the Pieces I have done so far I plan to create more artworks using the methods I developed that push boundaries and have the same feel and innovative ways of artworks featured in the ‘In the Black Fantastic Book’.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

The text I chosen is an article called ‘Afrofuturism to Afrouturism’ by Sean Guynes 

The issue raised in this article reperesentation of black people in science fictitious as it is close to none in mainstream visual media there’s only a few major examples 

it is related to my work as this is an issue I would like to do a campaign about and I want to create work representative of this. 

 What’s interesting about this text is that the Author refers to a scholar called Isiah Lavender  the Third whose a scholar throughout as he talks about the issue of black people in science fiction and how race in science fiction is usually a metaphor and it casts aliens, Ai etc without tackling the issues of American racial history 

Lavender calls this “Blackground” 

The passage highlighted is one that highly interested me because it mentions that Black Spiritualists are an example of afro futurists as it’s a form a freedom technology. In times of enslavement black people created secret coded language and songs to help them escape the pain and suffering of enslavement which is very forward thinking and like a technology 

AFROFUTURISM in my option is a way for black people to push the narrative that we are in the future and  we should celebrate the progression and traditions of our race. 

References:

The Rhino otherwise known as the Rhinoceros is a herbivore mammal that  has five species,the black rhino, the white rhino, Sumatran, Javan, and Indian also known as the greater horned Rhino. Their lineages stretch back to 55 million years ago.

The Rhino evolved from three families: the Hyracodontidae, Amynodontidae and Rhinocerotidae.

 Both black and white rhinoceroses are actually gray. They are different not in color but in lip shape.The black rhino has a pointed upper lip, while its white relative has a squared lip.

The black rhino has long been thought to be more aggressive and inquisitive than the white rhino. It has been suggested that their habitat differences have a significant role in their behavior. The majority of wild African rhinos are currently restricted to these countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. 

The rhino is an endangered species with their horns in high demand for their medicinal benefits in places such as Vietnam ,China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore 

(Figure 1). The horn is also valued in North Africa and the Middle East as an ornamental dagger handle.

 "It is driven by the growing affluence in Asian countries, particularly Vietnam and China, where people have believed for centuries that rhino horn can cure many illnesses, including cancer. The belief is part of their culture and deep rooted, and therefore very difficult to dislodge."

(Figure 1) Saigon Vietnam : A traditional medicine specialist pours the grindings of Rhino horn mixed with water into a cup for drinking

On the Black Market the Rhinoceros Horn is worth “approximately $4700 per kilogram in 1993 to approximately $65,000 per kilogram in 2012” (2019) ‘Rhino poaching and the “slow violence” 

Poaching is becoming a danger in all rhino range nations, but South Africa is being especially targeted since it is home to the majority of rhinos in the world.

Many nations have lost their rhino populations entirely: Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, Sudan in Africa, and Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Farmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Sarawak in Asia.

An Artist that I researched that covered the Poaching of rhinos is the Wildlife conservation photojournalist, Brent Stirton. The South African Photographer captures the graphic reality of hunted animals such as the Rhinoceros in his Photographic series “Rhino Wars” (Figure 2). He explores the cruelty that Rhinos face and the war on their horns. It shows imagery of poachers removing their horns in a way in which it is beyond repair and regrowth for the rhino, the moving images that show carcasses of deceased Rhinoceroses brutally poached, and the people that use their horns for health benefits in Vietnam. “She is grinding the horn in a dish specially made for the purpose. It has a rhino symbol on the side and has a rough base on which to grind the horn into powder. After a few minutes, water was added and she swallowed it. The woman told me she took it daily for her general health.”

(Figure 2) OL Pejeta conservancy, Kenya : member of Anti Poaching team Protecting Rhino

For my Final piece with the research I gathered I wanted to create a piece that reflects everything I have learnt according to what I have seen Rhinos appear to be gentle creatures that have the occasional brawl like other species but to humans are not even on the level of a threat yet poachers poach for their horns for selfish gain. While I could have shown the brutality that the rhinos face in the animation, I purposely chose to capture the beauty of the rhino and the peaceful experience it should have. A world without poachers. A world with violence inflicted onto them. In my piece I created an animation to depict the idle world of the rhino. There is a peaceful blue sky with clouds passing by, grass and the Rhino itself slowly moving its head upward. I want this animated piece to show that an innocent creature is being used and exploited outside of its knowledge and there is a contrast between its peaceful world versus its fate. 

References 

Lopes, A.A. (2019) ‘Transnational links in rhino poaching and the black‐market price of rhino horns’, The Australian journal of agricultural and resource economics, 63(1), pp. 95–115. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8489.12286.

McKie, R. (2012) ‘Wildlife: Graphic images that highlight the trade killing our rhinos: Brent Stirton’s dramatic photographs of the battle to halt the growing trade in rhino horn won him a major wildlife award and have highlighted how superstition and increasing affluence in Asia are having a deadly effect in his homeland’, The Observer (London), p. 12–.

Witter, R. and Satterfield, T. (2019) ‘Rhino poaching and the “slow violence” of conservation-related resettlement in Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park’, Geoforum, 101, pp. 275–284. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.06.003.

According to my understanding of this text All animals are equal is about how Peter Singer Claims that Nonhuman animals should not be excluded from having equal rights. Animal rights are on the same level as women's rights, Black peoples rights, and LGBTQ rights. They all have something in common, a wanting to re-evaluate how racists, Sexists and Homophobes think Morally.

 “The basic principle of equality does not require equal or identical treatment; it requires equal consideration” Singer claims that equality is based on equal consideration, based on morality and is not a fact and the capacity for suffering is the basis for having rights therefore an animal suffers so it deserves rights. 

It goes on to say however that there are important differences between Animals and humans therefore need different rights like between men and women. Beings with interests according to the singer should be considered. Singer quotes Jeremy Bentham “the question is not can they reason,nor can they talk? But, can they suffer?” 

It goes further to say that a stone for instance doesn't have interests due to its inability to suffer in contrast to a mouse who has an interest in not being harmed therefore the mouse deserves consideration.

For the identity project we had to create a box that is about our identities. For this project I interpreted identity as something that is always changing and is created over time. so I decided to create a Sculpture as my box using clay. The sculpture I created is of a female head with Tubes inserted into it on numerous spots. One from the head to symbolize the feeding of information on our external environments. My artist inspiration was Wangechi Mutu who has an Afro futuristic aesthetic. She creates sculptures of feminine figures that look like extraterrestrial beings that represent high ranking African women. She almost gives a restoration of power to herself and people like her. I also drew inspiration from the idea that identity is malleable and transformable and made and like identity clay is a material that is malleable and changeable. It also gives my piece the Ambiance of the organic yet artificial with the clear plastic tubes.

I visited the Hew Locke exhibition ‘The Procession’ in Tate Britain. Hew Locke's work ‘the Procession' is an installation art piece that features a series of figures moving as one in a colorful, carnival-like ‘procession’ through the gallery space. The installation was on a large scale. From first glance you are immediately drawn to this bright and colorful scene of characters moving in a singular direction that looks to be a celebratory ambiance.

 The piece is reminiscent of a Caribbean carnival as the installations energy injects the space with sculptures that appear to be people but motionless in these highly detailed costumes embellished in symbols and holding flags of numerous pictures and icons it was like a hunt for clues as to what this work could mean. 

After looking deeper it is a piece that speaks about current issues like globalization, rising sea levels and Colonialism and post-colonialism This piece was inspiring because it's a thought provoking piece that is full of meaning and new things to discover as you zone into each figure in this grand procession. It inspired me to have a motive and an intention of how I would want a viewer to view my work, like making them search for something, discover or feel a particular way.

 This piece was like a grand display of issues that are going on in the world for the public to see. 

In the article The Ambivalent Grotesque by Julian Hernandez, The author has a conflicted opinion about Wangechi Mutu’s work specifically Wangechi Mutu’s Ark collection (2006) and recent Collages of Mutu’s. The Ark Collection consists of collage images of black women from Hyper pornographic material like magazines and post cards with the models private parts from these cut and pasted to create a new figure as seen in (figure 1). It raises themes of Classism it compares the 

Julian Hernandez describes the aesthetic of Mutu’s artworks as Grotesque and could implore ambivalent responses in the way in which Black Women's bodies are portrayed. The article also touches on Wangechi Mutu’s Racialised porn disgust and how the author critiques Wangechi Mutu's expression of this (pg.428).

 In comparison, in “problematica” a journal by Naima Keith J discusses Wangechi Mutu's part in “Colonial” and “Post Colonial art”. It also acknowledges the themes of Wangechi Mutu’s work such as the “Colonial representation” and “suppression” of Black Women that Mutu portrays in her artwork. The article is more of a appreciative analysis of Mutu’s artwork.

The Ambivalent Grotesque speaks on the perspective of Wangechi Mutu’s perception of Black Women’s sexual identities that Mutu presents as Hypersexualised. whereas in  “proplematica” it talks about Wangechi Mutu’s artwork in the stance of her theme of Colonialism and the “primitive and seductive and/or repulsive qualities of the wild or Other”. It also explains how Mutu gives a voice to the silenced, colonized body of black women. My stance on the artists work is one of admiration technically and conceptually. Wangechi Mutu draws on subject matter that I as a black person can relate to. She creates imagery by taking, reshaping and giving a new meaning. 

Figure 1 ( The Ark Collection 2006)

References 

Hernandez, J. (2017) ‘The Ambivalent Grotesque: Reading Black Women’s Erotic Corporeality in Wangechi Mutu’s Work’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 42(2), pp. 427–457. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1086/688290.

 This reading is about the Diaspora life of people of color in the western world and artists that have demonstrated this through their artwork. There’s a “groundless” and “nostalgic Yearning for lost origins” especially within the Black Community. there’s a need to connect with their roots and maintaining it for the sake of keeping culture and tradition alive or create new ones that take the place of lost roots like within the Black American Community as most have ancestors that were apart of the Slave trade and have had their family lines residing within America ever since. 

An artwork that is discussed by the author is the artwork by Aaron Douglas, “Negro in an African setting” the image illustrates a group of Warriors, dancers. And Percussionists rejoicing under a floating fetish idol. This image is about African Spirituality, its dynamism and the roots of African culture. Although the image is of historic context, it has a modernist art style that a majority of Diaspora art features.

This made me question whether this was a real experience that the artist has had or an imaginary one. 

Critics of Diaspora artwork have discussed that this is a return to Diaspora homeland and a chance for the creator to connect with and resolve a past that could have been. It’s “Fabricated African-ism”. 

Another piece that is raised is Jean-Michel Basquiat’s that describes Black History. Its Ancient Routes, The Slave Trade, And the Experience of the African slave in the United states.