10/30, 4:30pm-5:10pm
My initial start to trying to make sense of what I wanted to research and how they all connected together. I found that the artists I was interested in held common themes of subverting images, symbolic meaning, portrayals of blackness and black bodies.
10/31, 9:30am- 10:30am
I was trying to get a sense for Rashaad Newsome’s work because of his interesting use of baroque era aesthetic with elements associated with African-American culture/ pop culture through mixed media. I especially loved the idea of using imagery to oppose cultural essentialism in a way that challenges hegemonic control. I think that was a concept seen throughout the work of the artists I was interested in.
11/3, 12:45pm-2:00pm
At this stage I am researching the other artists I am interested in. I am interested in Firelei Baez’s work because it draws on her heritage as a Haitian Dominican woman. It speaks to a narrative and a duality of the self that gets encapsulated in her work and the names of her work. I am particularly focused on her works A Vessel of Genealogies and Can I Pass? Introducing the Paper Bag to The Fan Test for the Month of December. Omar Diop uses pattern and color in a layering effect that evokes historical African portraiture, again this use of historical imagery within contemporary art.
11/5, 3:00pm-4:15pm
I started really looking into Kehinde Wiley’s works. I love his use of color, but I was drawn in by his Lamentation series and the use of color with the depiction of the black body. The same can be said for the Ikire Jones brand as well. Both works appropriate classical Western styles in a way that positions the black body in a whole new context and relation.
11/10, 2:30pm-3:40pm
I am still trying to find other artists that fit within the theme/ questions I am trying to ask. My Pecha Kuch still seems all over the place and it seems to transition from one concept to another. I am just trying to fill in the blanks in the presentation in order to make a cohesive presentation.
11/11, 1:00pm-1:30pm
Even at this stage, I was still trying to make sense of how these artists fit together and the formal and thematic elements that connect them together in a certain order in my mind.
