Abstract
History as we know it, is inherited. Racism, fascism, white supremacy, and Eurocentric dominance have been presented as normal and acceptable within our society for many years. This has allowed police officers to execute Black American’s and not be acquitted for their horrendous crimes. As an activist I want to challenge the status quo. As an artist I am interested in investigating how I can present ideas embody or reflect contemporary issues and concerns. Using different colors can aggressively change how an object is perceived. Historical objects hold many important.
I explore many mediums, but an anchor material that I employ in my work is clay. It is of the ground that we all walk on and it has been used to produce objects and pottery for millennia. Using such a plastic medium as clay today can yield a multitude of processes and results to demonstrate my artistic concerns. While composing art works I am in opposition to the skewed historical information inherited from the past. As an artist I aim to make my experience relevant and heard. Blackness is limitless and deep. No longer does this color have to be used to further imperialist agendas but will be used to illustrate the unfathomable depth within whatever is covered in this color. There are a myriad ways to address this content, by making monuments, what clothes one wears, and more. This essay focuses on how I craft objects and installations that I hope bridge history and contemporary experiences to make a unique contribution to contemporary cultural production. Art is a noun and craft is a verb.
Committee Chair
Ilene Berman
Committee Members
Ilene Berman
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art
Author's Department
Graduate School of Art
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
Spring 5-4-2017
Language
English (en)
Recommended Citation
Irving, kahlil, "Black Matter" (2017). Graduate School of Art Theses. ETD 80.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/K73J3BDB
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Comments
Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K73J3BDB