SmallK. Mercer New Practices%2C New Identities 2

NEW PRACTICES, NEW IDENTITIES: HYBRIDITY AND GLOBALIZATION

KOBENA MERCER

Transformations in the Representation of Black People
  • The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw transformative changes in representations of black people in Western art.
  • Numerous social, cultural, and political factors contributed to these changes:
    • Proliferation of Black Artists: The presence of black artists in institutions of artistic production created a dialogue about cultural differences.
    • Shift from European Perspectives: Historically, black images were shaped by European artists, who viewed their own white identities as the norm.
    • Control of the Black Image: Artists of African descent began to control their own representations, questioning established norms of race and representation.
    • Hybridity Concept: The era was defined by the concept of hybridity, which captures the complexities arising when multiple cultures interact.
Artistic Practices Post-1980s
  • Artists since the 1980s have distanced themselves from the modernist idea of a singular authorial style associated with a specific medium.
  • Emphasis on pluralistic art-making:
    • Conceptual dimensions became integral to the art.
    • Inherited legacies from the civil rights and decolonization movements influenced these artists.
Challenges to Definitions of Blackness
  • The late twentieth-century artistic movements challenged definitions of blackness and encouraged new perspectives.
  • A working definition of postmodernism and postcolonialism is vital to contextualize these transformations:
    • Postmodernism represents a crisis in cultural authority associated with Western European culture.
    • Art historians have described postmodernism as not merely an art movement after modernism but as a qualitative shift in representation.
The Shift from Primitivism to Hybridity
  • Modernist primitivism dominated discussions on cross-cultural differences in visual arts for the first eighty years of the twentieth century.
  • Transformative exhibitions (e.g.,
    • "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art (1984) & Magiciens de la Terre (1989)) facilitated the decentering of traditional binaries of self and other.
    • The Decade Show (1990) in the U.S. and The Other Story (1989) in the U.K. emphasized artistic hybridity, revealing the potentialities of difference.
Thematic Concerns in Art

Four themes help explore the hybrid translations of black images:

  1. Portraiture: Reinterpretation of black subjects questioning individualism in the genre.
  2. Bodies: Attempts to reclaim black bodies from Western representational fears and fantasies.
  3. Archives: Investigations into historical representations that examine absence and loss.
  4. Travels: The diasporic experience and the impact of globalization on cultural identity.
The Implications of Globalization
  • The anti-hybridity backlash of the 1990s witnessed a clash of civilizations rather than creative cultural exchange.
  • The proliferation of hyper-blackness globally led to new forms of cultural commodification.
  • The concept of the Black Atlantic diaspora informed new perspectives on structure and agency in contemporary art.
Key Artists and their Works
  1. Carrie Mae Weems:
    • Explored documentary traditions while inserting her narrative into Family Pictures and Stories.
  2. Lorna Simpson:
    • Worked with anonymity and invisibility in figures alongside text in her pieces like Gestures/Reenactments.
  3. Sonia Boyce:
    • Addressed self-portraiture complexities in From Someone Else's Fear/Fantasy to Metamorphosis.
  4. Robert Mapplethorpe:
    • Provoked discussions on black male body representation in works such as Black Males.
  5. Marlon Riggs:
    • Featured black gay life in Tongues Untied, challenging homophobia and racial representation.
  6. Kerry James Marshall:
    • Addressed historically black identities in the context of contemporary art.
  7. Fred Wilson:
    • Revealed buried histories in installations like Mining the Museum.
  8. Renée Green:
    • Explored the genealogical implications of diaspora in her performance works.
  9. Rotimi Fani-Kayode:
    • Investigated bodily expression through cultural and personal narratives.
The Future of Hybrid Identity in Art
  • Engaging with identities means navigating the interplay of history and future possibilities.
  • Hybridity will continue to challenge and redefine black images in art, maintaining momentum toward further transformation and inclusivity.
  • The cultural identity is characterized by ongoing transformation rather than stagnant representation, leading to possibilities for new