by Jerome du Bois
This blog is expanding to cover subjects other than national and international art. Besides long essays, we'll be posting short pieces on such subjects as Darwinism, haute couture, misogyny, the paranormal, cosmology, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, our own art, feminism, and monotheism vs. polytheism. Also quotes and meditations from current reading. So expect more frequent and varied postings.
Our reasons are many, and our own, but I don't mind sharing that this photo of Grayson Perry (it could have been any of those Turner wankers) persuaded me about who really lives in, and wants to be part of, the real world.
Finally, heads up: Catherine King's 9,000-word, three-part review of Hairstories, currently at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, is imminent, and incendiary, which you can probably tell from the title, and the opener:
Just 'Fro Stories: How SMoCA and New Times Jump Right in Da Guilted Frame; or, Don't Blame Your Bad Black Hair Days on My White Skin
by Catherine King
High on the right wall as one enters HairStories at SMoCA, latex letters spell out a quotation for Elastic QP, from a 2001 Sally Beauty Supply catalog:
If you think in terms of good hair and bad hair, the problem isn't on your head.
-- implying that someone may have some issues or baggage, psychological in nature. The problem with HairStories is that the exhibition itself is based on the strategy of letting erroneous, irresponsible thinking slide, or pass, rather than critically examining the self-imposed limitations of the recent past. When the issues are as important as personal and collective power, sniveling about past perceptions is no help at all in furthering the essential discussion about Race that must at some time no longer be avoided.
The organizers of HairStories begin by attempting to foist off on the targeted audience (white, middle-class) the assumption that black Americans have been cosmetically deprived:
Since slavery, African-American hair has been central to multitudes of racist notions that devalue and diminish the legitimacy of African-Americans in the New World. (Dr. Neal A. Lester, page 33)
Some people have refused to admit that you can do whatever you want to do with your hair in 20th/21st Century America, no matter who you are. It's a claiming-POWER thing, which is more significant than a beauty bitch. The best art in the exhibition dealt with hair as an expression and embodiment of Psychological Power. The poorest art in the show was reactive to cultural notions and never got past alternately trying to kowtow or to blame.
Before I can discuss my most and least favorite pieces in the show -- which I will -- I feel I must address the easy and shameful way SMoCA, its backers, the writers, curators, organizers and some media have jumped right into the black racism frame. And some of the artists followed suit. (I'll show this through titled subsections.) There are shockingly anti-American endorsements in the catalogue as well. Nevertheless, HairStories led me to a more profound realization of the responsibility of being a vital, thinking artist, as well as a higher level of hairstyling. Finally, in a tilt at balance, I will sum it all up with my own modest hair story -- my FairStory.
(imminent)
Posted by Jerome at December 12, 2003 11:32 AM | TrackBack