Black Bodies, White Cubes
Taylor Renee Aldridge’s article in Art News, “Black Bodies, White Cubes: The Problem with Contemporary Art’s Appropriation of Race,” though not creative non-fiction, pertains to the creative representation of news and gives dialogue for when we look at artwork in a political context and how we think about it. This piece covers the worry that contemporary art has recently been using the Black Lives Matter movement for monetary gain and prestige. It gives an important insight into things that should be taken into consideration when using the news to make an artful interpretation and the possible consequences to the movements used.
Aldridge talks about how certain kinds of creative interpretations of the Black Lives Matter movement does not help the movement but instead can numb people to the cause and make it less into a movement for social change but instead into a spectacle to be watched and not participated in. The artists are depicting their interpretation of the news about unarmed black men shot by police that has been in the news for the past few years. These artists often make graphic and disturbing art depicting the death of these men. Aldridge worries that these pieces, instead of helping the movement, actually take away from it by making art based on systematic racism desirable for galleries where the people seeing it will be mostly upper class white people who will probably not view it for its intended message, praising the artist not the movement. She expresses disgust at the white artists who sell art pieces that depict things related to the BLM movement, especially when the art involves those who have died.
In representing the news this piece brings up the question of responsibility. Does someone re-presenting news, specifically news pertaining to sensitive topics, have a responsibility to the message? Does calling something “art” take away any responsibility of the ‘artist’ to uphold the integrity of the subject? In the case of the sculpture of Michael Brown by Ti-Rock Moore, does she have a responsibility to be respectful to the Brown family and to his memory? Don’t sculptures like this strip him of his humanity and further puts him in the category of the symbolic and is that a bad thing? I am inclined to say it is, to me he never asked to be a symbol and his memory should be that he was a person, not just a dead body, but do I have a say in it? Perhaps by calling something art it does allow for leeway. It is part of art’s job after all to present the artist’s thoughts and feelings, it is a subjective take on the world and art can be about pushing the boundaries and beginning a dialogue. Perhaps they are excused of responsibility.
I cannot provide any answers to these questions, as I don’t think anyone can, but they’re important to consider when reading or writing creative non-fiction. It provides us all with a viewpoint to keep in mind and adds context when putting out critical eye to a work of contemporary art that claims to represent a story in the news.