Re: [-empyre-] Re:race, net-art

[<aka.leafa@xtra.co.nz>]

Kia ora Danny
i just love you danny for your level of comprehension, for walking a few metres in the shoes of someone who is 'other' and for your bravery in making such insightful statements. 
.the kinds of 'labels' that get stuck to you if you are in any way sympathetic to black issues, reminds me very much of any movie about Mississippi in the 20th c. It's like you've been called a 'Nigger-Lover' without actually being called that.
It is at the very least, someone with some sort of nous that knows how belittling it is to have your work as a black person relegated to or referred to 'essentialist' , not that it is wrong or right...but it is position of defensiveness to a degree and I liken it to FLINCHING. The expectation of a blow...This may be learned behaviour but in the language of Wenger the educationalist, as 'legitimate peripheral participants' in art discourse and as black intelligent and observant people...one learns the dialect of the 'white' art culture and has to choose...do I remain black to do I try to be as 'pleasing' to the white aesthetic and behaviour  in order for them to understand and accept my work as art? What I have always found is that it rarely matters because much of the same negative things are assumed about blackness and art made by black people anyway. Why is that the canon is so closed? Or is it the arbiters of taste that are closed?

the strength of this forum is that it is open and I for one applaud empyre and all for this frank discussion racist or what ever...I really appreciate honesty as it is at least one move with which I don't have to 'flinch' in expectation over.
cheers 
Leafa

> 
> From: Danny Butt <db@dannybutt.net>
> Date: 2003/07/31 Thu PM 03:17:38 GMT+12:00
> To: <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Subject: [-empyre-] Re:race, net-art
> 
> Hi all
> 
> Sorry, lost in the day job there. I should mention I've had some
> back-channel with Tobias, and I mischaracterised his comments about the
> "universalisation" of the "problem". He wasn't talking about Damali's work,
> but about sarcasm generally. I'm not sure that's just what we was talking
> about, given that it was in response to a comment about whites gettting back
> some of what they have been given for centuries.
> 
> Anyway, Tobias seemed to me to be saying that it's the "they" that's the
> problem - and along those lines my initial comments stand: critiquing those
> in a subordinate political position for their use of "tools of power" , on
> the basis that they are somehow methodologically tainted by their
> association with power, is fairly troublesome from my pov. Tobias is
> apparently up next on empyre so perhaps some of these discussions will flow
> through in different forms.
> 
> Anyway, Tobias also made the reasonable point that my own position in making
> the post could be seen as a holier-than-thou move in itself, and I don't
> think there's too much to respond to there as it's one of those "when did
> you stop beating your spouse?" situations. Even if I take a patronising
> attitude, I hope that at least I'm not trying to exclude or hide myself from
> the dynamics under critique.
> 
> I guess I'd just say that my role in a conversation like this is to critique
> and extend my/our understanding of white culture, because that's what I
> inhabit. What I know about black culture is knowledge that I try not to use
> to discuss black experience, because that's not my place to represent.
> Nevertheless, it's through blackness that we comprehend whiteness, so there
> is a challenge for white culture to engage with black culture, black art,
> and black people to understand what white culture is. The result is,
> hopefully, that we stop seeing art as non-political, and see the whiteness
> of what is just accepted as "art" rather than "identity politics".
> 
> So I assess the *work* from my POV on the basis that it extends my/our
> awareness of what it means to be white, rather than whether the strategies
> employed are politically problematic or not "in themselves". That's a place
> from which white people can talk about racial issues in art, and there's a
> hell of a lot to say about it that doesn't get discussed, because of
> people's fear that they'll be branded racist.  Even if there's not a strong
> language around it yet, the work of this month's guests is notable for
> beginning to open up those spaces. I think, in response to the works, that
> the ball lies in the court of white culture. To pick up a bit on fanon, it's
> perhaps to suggest that white art has been picturing black culture for
> centuries, but now white culture has to start seeing itself in others' eyes
> - and artists are going to be the ones asking the hard questions that
> result.  I, for one, am looking forward to the future of these dialogues...
> 
> Best,
> 
> Danny
> 
> 
> -- 
> http://www.dannybutt.net
> 
> 
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