The artists featured in The Black Index—Dennis Delgado, Alicia Henry, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Titus Kaphar, Whitfield Lovell, and Lava Thomas—build upon the tradition of Black self-representation as an antidote to colonialist images. Their translations of photography challenge the medium’s long-assumed qualities of objectivity, legibility, and identification. Using drawing, sculpture, and digital technology to transform the recorded image, these artists question our reliance on photography as a privileged source for documentary objectivity and historical understanding. The works featured here offer an alternative practice—a Black index. In the hands of these six artists, the index still serves as a finding aid for information about Black subjects, but it also challenges viewers’ desire for classification and, instead, redirects them toward alternative information.
ISBN: | 9783777435961 |
Publication date: | 25th November 2021 |
Author: | Bridget R. Cooks, Sarah Watson |
Publisher: | Hirmer Verlag |
Format: | Hardback |
Pagination: | 128 pages |
Genres: |
Individual artists, art monographs Photography: portraits and self-portraiture Drawing and drawings Digital, video and new media arts |