2008 Fall: Theoretical Constructions in Contemporary Art

It was hard for me to relate personally to Hooks' ideas about "unconscious fantasies and longings to be in contact with the Other" or desires to "(transgress) racial boundaries within the realm of the sexual" because when it comes to any kind of relationship with a person of a different race than mine, race just doesn't matter to me. What moral, intelligent, self-respecting person really buys into supremacist ideas, however "distinctly postmodern a slant" with which those ideas are presented?

Since sex is something (perhaps irrevocably) linked with control, the idea of "sexual conquest" doesn't have to do exclusively with racial domination, but with gender domination. In desiring to "sexually possess the Other," the "Other" can simply be a person of the opposite sex and not necessarily a person of a different race. If the racist young men Hooks mentioned were talking about white girls, their dialogue would be sexist, rather than both racist and sexist. I do disagree with Hooks, though, that the young men she described are "(choosing) to transgress racial boundaries within the sexual realm not to dominate the Other, but rather so they can be acted upon, so they can be changed utterly" -- I think that, although these men are probably not aware of it, their intentions have very directly to do with obtaining power and dominating the "Other." It's obvious that what they want is power, not just a way to "enter the world of 'experience'." However, what makes their lust for domination even more monstrous and complex is that a desire for self-change, for "wisdom" gained by means of these new sexual experiences with the "Other," is tied up with it, and that these young men are doing racist (and sexist) things in the name of learning. Quite terrifying.

Hooks says, "Mutual recognition of racism, its impact both on those who are dominated and those who dominate, is the only standpoint that makes possible an encounter between races that is not based on denial and fantasy." Not to be too hard on Rooks, since her essay is very clear, well-written, and incisive, but the former statement is nonsense, and I hope that other people have a problem with it, too. Racism is not the determining factor in our relationship with people of other races. Do we really need to have racism on our minds, and to see people who are different in race from us as people who are different in race from us in order to have a "real" and productive relationship with a person of a different race? Of course not: some people are people for whom race doesn't matter in their personal relationships.

One of the things I was wondering was: how does one know when white culture is appropriating black culture because it is honoring and praising black culture, or because it is trying to exploit or "eat" black culture?

I found hooks’s essay to be really insightful-- she distills this aspect of our culture well. The state of racism now is preferable to the more overtly degrading and violent ways of the past, but hooks is saying that things are not shiny and perfect now, there are still manifestations of racism that will only heal if they are acknowledged, brought to the surface. “And it is pointless to pretend that it doesn’t exist – merely because it is a lie…� It’s interesting to me that this phenomenon of desire for the Other partly has roots in people’s desire to “publicly announces their break with a white supremacist past.� I think has some truth—there is a desire to prove one’s worldliness, one’s hipness, one’s political awareness, and what better way than by sleeping with the other. This urge to split with a racist past is a step forward, but it still uses the Other as merely a symbol not deserving of full respect.

You can bet that an aspect of culture is widespread and entrenched if the advertisers begin to catch on and commodify it, as with the desire for the Other. Hooks’s description of the Tweeds catalogue is almost funny. I remember the Benneton ads she describes, and at the time I thought they were great, really progressive statements. Hooks has a different take on this though, she says “When commodified it is easy for consumers to ignore political messages,� and “The over-riding fear is that cultural, ethnic, and racial differences will be continually commodified and offered up as new dishes to enhance the white palate – that the other will be eaten, consumed, and forgotten.� These ads that exoticise a woman or man of color are still prevalent, this marketing tactic still works (and I’m sure I’ll start noticing it even more now).

I can’t help but read this essay with Obama on my mind (is anyone else becoming increasingly obsessed with the election?). She says, “When the dominant culture demands that the Other be offered as a sign that progressive political change is taking place, that the American Dream can indeed be inclusive of difference, it invites a resurgence of essentialist cultural nationalism.� It would be a tremendous milestone, the ultimate “sign� of change, if he is elected. Bell hooks might stop us from patting ourselves on the back too much though. One need only remember that Fox News referred to Michelle Obama as Obama’s baby mama (this was text on the screen, not just some pundit blurting it out). I’m sure there are many people who will vote for Obama because of his race, and many who won’t vote for him for the same reason. Neither of these are desirable because it grants race too much power, it perpetuates the idea that it means something in the fundamental sense. But there will be a significant portion who will vote for Obama on his merits. I think, I hope, that this is possible is a sign that we are slowly moving beyond desire for the Other. Or have we just eaten him?

Hooks makes an interesting case for the desire and eating of the Other as a way to break with a Supremacist past, yet I wonder if her argument strictly focuses on White Supremacy, or if it could be applied to any race. Would an Asian male sleeping with a Puerto Rican women imply the same “transcendence,� becoming of the Other, or break from a supremacist history? I wont disagree that many individuals could regard sleeping with the Other as an “exploration into the world of difference� or think that it “will provide a greater, more intense pleasure than any that exists in the ordinary world of one’s familiar racial group� (which seems sad, but true). But surely this theory cannot apply to every interracial relationship. Like Rowan, Hooks’ statement, “Mutual recognition of racism, its impact both on those who are dominated and those who dominate, is the only standpoint that makes possible an encounter between races that is not based on denial and fantasy,� stuck out to me as well. Whatever happened to two people truly loving one another despite the color of their flesh?

Like Areca, I was drawn to hooks’ description of Tweed Magazine. “Egypt becomes a landscape of dreams, and its darker-skinned people background, scenery to highlight whiteness, and the longing of whites to inhabit, if only for a time, the world of the Other.� I can clearly recall being at my dad’s house, paging through catalogues like L.L. Bean or Eddie Bower, which contained very similar images and themes to those of Tweeds’ Egypt and Norway images. I remember thinking how pitiful it was that consumers actual purchase clothing based off of these tacky photos, but I never thought of the ads in terms of White Supremacy. I think mass culture can so easily confuse exploitation with the unity of races. After reading this article, the “imperialist nostalgia� becomes blatantly obvious and I am further disgusted by both the advertisements and the fact that mass culture falls into them.

Areca’s response to the election and Obama’s hopeful presidency as the ultimate sign of change reminded me of a Newsweek article by Jacob Weisburg I read about month ago. "Many have discoursed on what an Obama victory could mean for America. We would finally be able to see our legacy of slavery, segregation and racism in the rearview mirror. Our kids would grow up thinking of prejudice as a nonfactor in their lives. The rest of the world would embrace a less fearful and more open post-post 9/11 America. But does it not follow that an Obama defeat would signify the opposite? If Obama loses, our children will grow up thinking of equal opportunity as a myth. His defeat would say that when handed a perfect opportunity to put the worst part of our history behind us, we chose not to. In this event, the world's judgment will be severe and inescapable: the United States had its day, but in the end couldn't put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race." Weisburg’s words seem like a perfect example of suggesting that if we eat the Other, we as a country will publicly announce our break with a white supremacist past.

Have you ever been to Chino Latino? It’s a bar and restaurant in Uptown Minneapolis that perfectly embodies the sort of imperialist nostalgia (and literal consumption of Other-ness) that bell hooks describes. With the slogan “Street Food from the Hot Zones,� Chino Latino exoticizes the food and drink of warmer, poorer nations, while serving them up in a sexy space-age lounge environment conducive to first-world nookie. Meanwhile, murals reminiscent of socialist realism present idealized images of Southeast Asian workers in the fields, reminding the diner that their food brings them into closer contact with a “primitive� way of life – eating can become a ritual act of becoming the Other.

Chino Latino is a theme restaurant like many others, and diners can reasonably understand that they will experience only an entertaining simulation of the theme in question. However, the restaurant’s marketing campaign is designed to tantalize diners with the promise that within the safe space of the theme simulation, they will be able to experience the bodily risks and pleasures of Otherness. (hooks discusses cultural fixations on the black male body as a site of heightened pleasure and danger, and I would argue that in different ways, this same mythology is applied to other ethnic minorities as a way to commodify Otherness.) First of all, the restaurant’s name sums up their central premise: it can be food from Asia (Chino) or it can be food from Latin America (Latino), but it’s exciting because of its origins in Otherness. Their slogan elaborates by evoking the dangers of poverty and disease in these geographic areas – “street food� connotes a simpler, cheaper, dirtier urban culture, while “Hot Zones� references Richard Preston’s book about disease outbreaks in Africa. Meanwhile, this same slogan promises spicy food and even suggests sexuality and prostitution. Such connotations are elaborated upon in billboard campaigns that frequently make sarcastic references to food poisoning and prostitution. Thus, a diner can reenact “…the imperialist, colonizing journey as a narrative fantasy of power and desire, of seduction by the Other,� within clean high-design environs, and with $10 cocktails. Meanwhile, “it establishes a contemporary narrative where the suffering imposed by structures of domination on those designated Other is deflected by an emphasis on seduction and longing…�

Obviously, I connected with hooks’s arguments concerning “imperialist nostalgia,� but I was also interested in her discussions of black nationalism as a resistive culture. The problems of expressing resistance within creative culture are a subject that is particularly relevant to politically engaged artists. hooks describes how symbols of black national identity are adopted as fashion statements and lose their revolutionary meaning. “As signs, their power to ignite critical consciousness is diffused when they are commodified. Communities of resistance are replaced by communities of consumption.� This elegantly describes the phenomenon we’ve discussed in other contexts – the way that capitalism can efficiently absorb and profit from its own critics. Obviously we’re a culture deeply confused about both class and race. As a final note, I’d like to draw attention to the insightful quote from Howard Winant that hooks includes on p. 375. “ ‘In the postmodern political framework of the contemporary United States, hegemony is determined by the articulation of race and class.’ And most importantly it is the ‘ability of the right to represent class issues in racial terms’ that is ‘central to the current pattern of conservative hegemony.’�

Robin, you ask "Would an Asian male sleeping with a Puerto Rican women imply the same “transcendence,� becoming of the Other, or break from a supremacist history?" I would answer: "no, not really." You're right that someone of any race could have sexual interest in someone of another race based on difference. However, the whole idea of the "other" is constructed within a culture dominated by white voices and white perspectives. Furthermore, the history of colonization and supremacism is largely a white thing, especially with regards to media representations and cultural attitudes in America (which is what hooks is concerned with.)

“Masses of young people dissatisfied by U.S. imperialism, unemployment, lack of economic opportunity, afflicted by the postmodern malaise of alienation, no sense of grounding, no redemptive identity, can be manipulated by cultural strategies that offer Otherness as appeasement, particularly through commodification.� Of course, I immediately am reminded of Adorno, our last class discussion, and the branding of the anything revolutionary.

I also am reminded, once again, of the current election. Especially in the first round of presidential debates, McCain did an amazing job of branding Obama as “other,� and therefore unknown and unreliable. Many analysts suggested that what McCain really meant was “black.� Unfortunately for some, in this case, the Other does not represent "pleasure and danger," but rather the possibility that the dominant white culture might be a thing of the past. I also underlined the quote that Areca used in her response, and had some of the same reactions. Most importantly, I could relate to the idea that electing Obama might really be a true sign of change, but the fact that his race will cause anyone to alter his or her vote is evidence of stagnation rather than cultural development.

Also, I think its interesting that while Hooks talks about the role and impact of advertising on minority populations, she doesn’t really address the general tendency towards the white-ifying of the people involved. There might be an Asian woman depicted in an ad, but she is likely to be tall, as a white woman is more likely to be. Latin and African American faces are often more beige than brown or black. Therefore, while I agree that there is a desire to “eat the other,� the dominant white culture can only really handle the Other in small portions. Hooks argues that “In the cultural marketplace the Other is coded as having the capacity to be more alive,� and I would add that this is true as long as feeling more alive doesn’t seem to threatening or dangerous.

This essay successfully managed to put into words a very complex and difficult situation in our contemporary culture. It was pretty dense and took some slow reading, but still managed to cut into some thick topics for me. I was brought back to Fox River Mall in Appleton, Wisconsin as a 12-year-old middle class white kid hanging out on the weekends. (so sad) I remember when Benetton opened, and it seemed so.....exotic. All these different cultures represented in the pictures on the wall throughout the store. The same can be said for Banana Republic, the store where you buy clothes for your overseas exotic vacation of watching ethnic cultures through heavy binoculars in the safety of your Holiday Inn hotel room.

I really do believe a large part of this desire for the "Other" comes from the white majority's crises in identity. Its the reality of the cycle of things. What I mean by that is, when your population/country is the richest and most powerful, you tend to use your abundance of wealth and energy(oil) to create this plastic bubble around yourself. Safety, soft, air-conditioning, hot showers, carpet, boxes and boxes of food, dvds, and of course ways of numbing your senses, because you can afford it. We live in a country where you can pretty much get high/drunk every night and still keep your day job. Its funny to think that some people, mostly in poor countries, try to get high and drunk everyday to numb the pain of their difficult existence, but in the wealthy countries many get high every night so television seems funnier. And on the television we can watch commodified 'otherness', which is a safe kind because by being commodified, any political message or 'power to ignite critical consciousness' is diffused and watered-down.

Is it true that the only real art and soul can come from a person or culture that is being oppressed? I had a teacher years ago that claimed that the only real important art that America has offered the world came from the music of African-Americans. (Jazz/Soul/R&B. Elvis commodified it, made it 'ok' to sell in the marketplace,etc) And when Bell Hooks talks about non-white expression as 'it emerged in the streets-outside the confines of a domesticity shaped and informed by poverty, outside enclosed spaces where young male bodies had to be contained and controlled', can I take this and apply it to the institution of art? Do we need to take our expression to the streets, the public spheres to gain public recognition and voice? Are we, art students, oppressed as a group? Just throwing it on the table.
Does real feelings of pain and bliss only exist in the trenches? Do we as the richest nation on earth use wealth to numb ourselves to the point where we have to go out and look elsewhere for real raw emotion?

Jonathan, I really enjoyed your comparison to chino latino. even the architecture and design of that nasty place makes the consumer feel more 'powerful' as he or she looks down below in the hole in the floor at the (mostly minority) cooks preparing their food.

I gotta rewrite this quote from the essay for myself to absorb it again, and also for others to hopefully read it again. it is from 'Channels of Desire' by Stuart and Elizabeth Ewen.

"The politics of consumption must be understood as something more than what to buy, or even what to boycott. Consumption is a social relationship, the dominant relationship in our society - one that makes it harder and harder for people to hold together, to create community. At a time when for many of us the possibility of meaningful change seems to elude our grasp, it is a question of immense social and political proportions. To establish popular initiative, consumerism must be transcended - a difficult but central task facing all people who still seek a better way of life."

What are some ways to transcend consumerism?

There's also the J.Peterman catalog...

http://jpeterman.com/

I used to get it in highschool...because I loved the drawings and enjoyed reading the descriptions...but not because they took me to a land far away...

I had forgot all about J.Peterman until I real this essay and the blog responses.

an entertaining side note:

my (younger) sister recently obtained her Omani driver's license...which after taking her photo they retouched on the spot removing all wrinkles, freckles and dark shadows under her eyes...which she did not request...it ended up looking like a Glamour Shot.

As a Japanese, born and raised in Republic of Ecuador and studying in United States of America, I have always been “the Other� and have experienced a different treatment from different races. Being so, I have seen many different perspectives of racism. In South America, there is a strong racism against Asians, in Japan people often make fun of Caucasians and in the United States, I believe there is no need of explanation.

Of course there will be differences between races, and each race has tendency of setting a “standard� and start measuring other races from their own perspectives. When a race becomes dominant, then this “standard� might become a “rule� and then turns into a “law�. Fortunately, we have already passed a point of allowing laws to set hierarchical order among different races. After the realization people have tried to “equalize� the differences and struggled, and now finally trying to acknowledge and appreciate the differences. I agree very much with Hooks that the difference should be accepted as differences, and enjoy the pleasure of sharing the differences.

It was interesting to see that many of you are sensitive to refer “white� as the dominant race. Well, I think it is inevitable and it is okay to have such perspective, if you consider yourself a white male or female. There is no way to see things in purely generalized context. If one tries to forcefully “equalize� the racial discrimination, then one becomes too sensitive and will have hard time choosing a general term to describe different races. I think the solution is, like Hooks mentioned, to acknowledge the difference. You calling yourself “white�, or making a clothing design that bases on white people, measure people in perspective of your race, is totally fine. How can you not? I think it becomes awkward when you feel sorry for emphasizing your race. Why sorry? Whites are cool, blacks are cool, so are yellows! If one truly thinks that there is no hierarchy in races, there should be no problem associating physical characteristics in describing each races. I think I am yellow, how about you?

Tonya, wow, that's so interesting. My mother would love such service.

Sam, I personally think that consumerism becomes less threatening as soon as we realize that it's a potential threat. Because in the end it all comes down to what we choose to buy.

The heart of the essay for me lied in the difference between "cultural appropriation" and "cultural appreciation". Bell Hooks states that "the commodification of difference promotes paradigms of consumption wherein whatever difference the Other inhabits is eradicated, via exchange, by a consumer cannibalism that not only displaces the Other but denies the significance of that other's history through a process of decontextualization." When a another cultures identity is exploited for monetary gain by mainstream white culture it is striped of it's rich complex history and is simplified into an easily digestible easily marketable product.

As with Sam I too enjoyed Jonathan's example of Chino Latino in talking about the "Eating of the Other". What a perfect example! I haven't really thought about it these terms before. I always did get a weird vibe from that place and I never really knew exactly why. Granted, I knew that the restaurant was heavily designed, both in it's interior as well as in it's marketing & advertising, but I never really thought about it in terms of the wealthy white sector of our culture desiring other cultural experiences in a safe familiar way. Jonathan, I think you cracked their marketing strategy wide open. Nice work!

This article was quite difficult for me to digest, mostly because it's hard for me to relate to the notion of consuming ones culture. I have a love for various ethnic foods, music and art but it is from vantage of "cultural appreciation" not "cultural appropriation". Rowen raised in interesting question in regards to knowing the difference between praising ones culture and exploiting it. One defining characteristic of exploitation of a culture is the relation of money to it. Maybe exploitation is simply part of something being fully embraced into the mainstream. It seams to be a phenomenon that supersedes race. Look at the hippy counter culture movement of the late 60's and early 70's. It was fully incorporated into the mainstream market and because of this, it lost its original essence. In the end it becomes part of a larger cultural dialogue that takes place over generations.

Mutual recognition of racism, its impact both on those who are dominated and those who dominate , is the only standpoint that makes possible an encounter between races that is not based on denial and fantasy. I love this sentence. It is so calm and rational. I really think bell hooks does a great job of showing how a consumer culture really plays with race relation and desire of contact with the other to make money but not to actually address the inherent problems in such an act.
Again we are addressing the capitalist culture absorbing the tenets of apposition to further its own agenda and to quell resistance and even freedom of speech and equal rights. The way meaningless commodification strips these signs of political integrity and meaning, denying the possibility that they can serve as a catalyst for concrete political action.
" Who can take seriously Public Enemy's insistence that the dominated and their allies " fight the power " when that declaration is in no way linked to a collective organized struggle? " She states; When commodified it is easy for consumers to ignore political messages.

She ends her fascinating piece with talking about how she began her research and conversations with people about addressing this issue and the response was positive in that her students felt something positive was happening, that the issues were coming out in the open. I agree with her that although desire for contact with the other doesnt have to be bad, these new images do need to be examined critically.

Looking at social issues through Bell Hooks essay is fabulous, enlivening and gives me new perspective on cultural methodologies. How should we look at the people around us, how do we believe the strangers among us? I agree we are in a cultural identity crisis and it is our history that we will continue to move away from, or as Hooks states we can’t get away from due to imperial nostalgia for the ideas of the primitive.

I looked at this essay and tried to put myself into it. Where do I find the other and what are my desires in gaining self power and recognition as I. I don’t want to put down a category such as white woman, but that may be my own effort to equalize the cultural territories, but I am white and I am a woman, so I have my own marginal experience to theorize about.

Hooks speaks from her own accounts with in culture, making a strong case for the other as a commodity of our society, so when I say that it is natural for all humans to desire an other outside of ourselves, I have to ask is it society that gave me this or is it in the human condition. Hooks is seeing this condition manipulated by the culture of whiteness and I agree with her analysis, our culture is confusing and being driven by the people with control over media, products and power. I think that culture wants to be different and we may be heading into a time when change will take place, at lease we desire it to take place, through this year’s election. To give power to the Other and not mystify it for our own sake.

I know this is not a traditional way to respond to our readings, but this is an experience that I had that I have had some difficulty with.

In late 2006, I started making a series of dolls. I didn’t intend to originally, but I took the opportunity when I came across a lot of high-end plastic doll parts at a surplus resale store. These doll parts were all African American, but packaged with Caucasian imagery, which I assumed, had been a mistake at the factory. For only a dollar I could get a package of a doll head with articulating eyes, a set of arms, and a set of legs. I had been collecting dead and used computer power supplies, and thought they could make perfect torsos for what would become “the Power Supply Girls�.

I started making these dolls and had a lot of fun doing so. They were playful, yet disturbing. Affectionate expressions with square cold mechanical bodies that had a diversity of different colored cables and connections flowing out of them. I collaged medical heart diagrams, old-world maps and images of money minimally onto their bodies to further detail and composition. I didn’t really have a message with these dolls, I was just making and playing with what I had available.

Then I started showing them to my professors at my undergraduate university. Wow. “Why are you making dolls? You are not a woman! You are not even Black! How can you justify making these dolls when you have no credibility or context to do so? What are you trying to say about gender and race issues in the United States, and how are you prepared to answer the questions these dolls will provoke?�

Now that I was on the defensive, my playful dolls weren’t so playful anymore. And I began to try to find what they meant to others and myself. In early 2007, I had the opportunity to exhibit several of the dolls at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, in Omaha Nebraska. At the opening, the predominantly white audience found them amusing, disturbing and creepy. One was even purchased by a board member. Everything was fine, until four African American women approached me. They introduced themselves as officers and members of the National Organization of Negro Women University of Nebraska at Omaha Chapter and that they had some questions and concerns about the dolls.

I nervously explained how I originally came across my materials and explained the parallels of how figurative African sculptures are commonly referred to as “power objects� referencing their use in ancestor worship and ritual instead of being considered an art object as they are in the West. And how the computer power supply referenced a different sort of power, but nonetheless the same language. And went onto explain how the Caucasian woman was over represented in the Western art world and museums. They were satisfied with my answers, and we went on to have a pleasant discussion about art; we had our photo taken together and the next day I was on the front page of the NCNW blog.

After the show, I packed the dolls away in storage, where they remain today.

In October of 2007, I received a phone call asking me to RSVP for the annual NCNW heritage ball and award ceremony. My presence was requested because I was being awarded The Black Artist of the Year Award. I was shocked, I explained that there had been a mistake, that I wasn’t African American, I was officially Latino according to the census and that I couldn’t accept this award in good faith. Surely there was a black artist in Omaha who could. The woman on the other end of the phone said it was too late to make a change, and that the officers unanimously voted me to be the recipient. In November, along with community leaders, organizers, and other award recipients, I was presented my award on stage.

One of my professors thought it was great, she said to put it on my resume and CV, to use my real and mistaken heritage to their full potential, while others said not to mention it, or at least down play the award removing “black� from the wording. They feared there could be repercussions from falsely representing myself.

I have had mixed feelings about this experience ever since. I in no way was trying to exploit race or gender to get an award. I was only trying to make art, and enjoy myself while doing it. I was honored to get this award, but did I do so at the expense of “Eating the other�? That was never my intention.