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‘Remixed & Reloaded’ breaking ground at CAMH
  
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By Virginia Billeaud Anderson
“I specifically said three packs of ketchup! Excuse me! My ketchup is not in the bag!” An obese, dark-skinned motor mouth fusses about fast food “issues.”
“Booty, booty, booty – booty!” A light-skinned hottie does butt-shaking jivey moves. Feeling uncomfortable? These cringe-worthy stereotypical portrayals of young black women comprise Jessica Ann Peavy’s video “Note to Self: There’s a Hot Sauce Stain on my Gucci Bag.” Peavy’s biting parody forces the viewer to confront his own capacity for stereotyping. Objectification, nutrition and security-negating consumerism are addressed.
Ayoka Chenzira’s video “Hair Piece: A Film for Nappy Headed People” explores the subject of black female hair. How do black women navigate culturally imposed soft-bouncy hair standards anchored by unsparing advertising? The video romps through straightening chemicals and salon rituals while championing the natural look and self-defined standards of beauty.
For over three decades black female video artists have been gaining art world recognition. Their work, some of which is hilarious, some confrontational, examines the themes of family, racism, the subjugation and liberation of the black body, the male gaze, gender inequality, among other thought provoking content.
“Cinema Remixed & Reloaded: Black Women Artists and the Moving Image Since 1970,” an astonishing exhibition of almost 50 videos by black women artists from around the world, recently opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum and you should not miss it. This is the opportunity to encounter the biggies working with this art form.
In “Dead White Men” Zoë Charlton positions her nude body in emulation of art history’s iconic nudes. She kneels like Degas’ washtub nude, lies stomach down in the manner of Gauguin’s Tahitian nude, presents as odalisque and Venus, as well as Lautrec’s floor seated spread legged floozy. Charlton’s is a juicy meditation on the male gaze in Western Art.
The artist’s use of her full figured black body to spoof art historical iconography cites an element common to many of the exhibition’s works, artist’s body as artistic material. Black female video artists use their bodies to celebrate their fully realized selves. Their body’s corporeal presence and vitality denies a silenced or marginalized position in society. It transcends historical subjugation and trauma. To assert the body is an evocation of resistance and liberation, veering into ritual.
So when Carrie Mae Weems uses her body to walk, phantom like, through the streets of Rome in “Italian Dreams,” her focus and formidable disregard for others’ scrutiny signals authentic black womanhood, defying fictionalization. Black woman as “other” has been artistically refashioned through self-definition and psychic emancipation. Her character’s having her way with the voiceless white dude is a cathartic and humorous reference to historical oppression.
Howardena Pindell uses her body to debunk goofy notions about skin color in “Free, White and 21” as she chronicles racist encounters while disguised as a white woman. Xaviera Simmons burlesques skin tanning in “Landscape Beach.” On a sandy beach and wearing a cornpone afro wig, Simmons covers her entire face and body with black paint. A haunting discourse on skin color is “Daily Mask” by Maren Hassinger who smears African mask looking decorative lines into minstrel show blackface.
Several works incorporate historical film footage. Tracey Moffatt’s “Lip” is a video collage summarizing Hollywood’s use of black women actresses as maids. Mammy nails Scarlet for waiting “like a spider” for Mista Ashley, and, compared to her maid Imogene, Trixie Delight is pathetically dumb. Where the maid character is strong or intelligent, she is “giving lip.”
Ever see the cakewalk? It was a dance performed by slaves and newly freed blacks that imitated the straight-back, tight-butt jerky moves of dancing whites. Ogechi Chieke’s “Thee Cakewalk Everlasting” juxtaposes authentic footage of black cakewalk dancers with contemporary dancers in blackface. While the video penetrates the historical reality of blacks performing for whites, its title summons wider allusions. Chieke regrets the buffoonery of some of today’s black performers.
Though the exhibition’s over 40 artists are art, film and academic heavy hitters, art scholarship is only just beginning to tackle this gender and culturally framed body of work. With such an ambitious and important presentation, CAM’s Valerie Cassel Oliver and her curatorial collaborators are breaking art historical ground.
“Cinema Remixed & Reloaded”
“Cinema Remixed & Reloaded: Black Women Artists and the Moving Image Since 1970,” an astonishing exhibition of almost 50 videos by black women artists from around the world, recently opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum. The exhibit continues through Jan. 4, 2009. See www.camh.org for more information.
“Booty, booty, booty – booty!” A light-skinned hottie does butt-shaking jivey moves. Feeling uncomfortable? These cringe-worthy stereotypical portrayals of young black women comprise Jessica Ann Peavy’s video “Note to Self: There’s a Hot Sauce Stain on my Gucci Bag.” Peavy’s biting parody forces the viewer to confront his own capacity for stereotyping. Objectification, nutrition and security-negating consumerism are addressed.
Ayoka Chenzira’s video “Hair Piece: A Film for Nappy Headed People” explores the subject of black female hair. How do black women navigate culturally imposed soft-bouncy hair standards anchored by unsparing advertising? The video romps through straightening chemicals and salon rituals while championing the natural look and self-defined standards of beauty.
For over three decades black female video artists have been gaining art world recognition. Their work, some of which is hilarious, some confrontational, examines the themes of family, racism, the subjugation and liberation of the black body, the male gaze, gender inequality, among other thought provoking content.
“Cinema Remixed & Reloaded: Black Women Artists and the Moving Image Since 1970,” an astonishing exhibition of almost 50 videos by black women artists from around the world, recently opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum and you should not miss it. This is the opportunity to encounter the biggies working with this art form.
In “Dead White Men” Zoë Charlton positions her nude body in emulation of art history’s iconic nudes. She kneels like Degas’ washtub nude, lies stomach down in the manner of Gauguin’s Tahitian nude, presents as odalisque and Venus, as well as Lautrec’s floor seated spread legged floozy. Charlton’s is a juicy meditation on the male gaze in Western Art.
The artist’s use of her full figured black body to spoof art historical iconography cites an element common to many of the exhibition’s works, artist’s body as artistic material. Black female video artists use their bodies to celebrate their fully realized selves. Their body’s corporeal presence and vitality denies a silenced or marginalized position in society. It transcends historical subjugation and trauma. To assert the body is an evocation of resistance and liberation, veering into ritual.
So when Carrie Mae Weems uses her body to walk, phantom like, through the streets of Rome in “Italian Dreams,” her focus and formidable disregard for others’ scrutiny signals authentic black womanhood, defying fictionalization. Black woman as “other” has been artistically refashioned through self-definition and psychic emancipation. Her character’s having her way with the voiceless white dude is a cathartic and humorous reference to historical oppression.
Howardena Pindell uses her body to debunk goofy notions about skin color in “Free, White and 21” as she chronicles racist encounters while disguised as a white woman. Xaviera Simmons burlesques skin tanning in “Landscape Beach.” On a sandy beach and wearing a cornpone afro wig, Simmons covers her entire face and body with black paint. A haunting discourse on skin color is “Daily Mask” by Maren Hassinger who smears African mask looking decorative lines into minstrel show blackface.
Several works incorporate historical film footage. Tracey Moffatt’s “Lip” is a video collage summarizing Hollywood’s use of black women actresses as maids. Mammy nails Scarlet for waiting “like a spider” for Mista Ashley, and, compared to her maid Imogene, Trixie Delight is pathetically dumb. Where the maid character is strong or intelligent, she is “giving lip.”
Ever see the cakewalk? It was a dance performed by slaves and newly freed blacks that imitated the straight-back, tight-butt jerky moves of dancing whites. Ogechi Chieke’s “Thee Cakewalk Everlasting” juxtaposes authentic footage of black cakewalk dancers with contemporary dancers in blackface. While the video penetrates the historical reality of blacks performing for whites, its title summons wider allusions. Chieke regrets the buffoonery of some of today’s black performers.
Though the exhibition’s over 40 artists are art, film and academic heavy hitters, art scholarship is only just beginning to tackle this gender and culturally framed body of work. With such an ambitious and important presentation, CAM’s Valerie Cassel Oliver and her curatorial collaborators are breaking art historical ground.
“Cinema Remixed & Reloaded”
“Cinema Remixed & Reloaded: Black Women Artists and the Moving Image Since 1970,” an astonishing exhibition of almost 50 videos by black women artists from around the world, recently opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum. The exhibit continues through Jan. 4, 2009. See www.camh.org for more information.
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