Featured photo: by Renee Cox, American, born 1960. “Chillin’ with Liberty,” 1998.
Written by Tanya Terry
There have been really positive comments already made about the different types of photography and the artists represented at the Posing Beauty in African-American Culture exhibition at Flint Institute of Arts (FIA), according to Tracee Glab, curator of exhibitions for FIA. Glab said the intent of the exhibition, to be on display at FIA through April 18, is to explore the meaning of beauty.
“Over time and even in our own day there are different interpretations and definitions of what beauty is,” she said. “Beauty is political sometimes; sometimes it’s very personal. So I think what this exhibition does through photography and one video is explore from historical to contemporary times what those different modes of beauty are.”
Beauty in the exhibition can be depicted in beauty contests or very personal, private portrait photographs.
There are three sections in the exhibition visitors go through.
The first section is Constructing a Pose and is all about how when an individual gets a photograph they are participating in the experience by posing for it.
“There’s one particular photograph that stands out to me by Charles ‘Teenie’ Harris; He was a Pittsburgh photographer in the early 20th century, active in the 1930s,” Glab said. “He did a photograph of a woman standing by her car, and it’s Mary Louise Harris, and she’s posing by the automobile. It’s really the idea of he’s controlling how you see her because she is posing for you in the photograph. So, that’s one way of looking at beauty.”
The second section is called Body and Image.
“It’s about how whether it’s hairstyle or your body type that can affect how people see you or how you see yourself. In this section, there are a lot of self portraits, mostly of the photographers themselves.”
One example of the art in this section is a photograph by Renee Cox in which Cox is posing herself on top of the Statue of Liberty.
“She’s really taking control of how she’s seen in the photograph.”
The last section; Modeling Beauty & Beauty Contests, is about how beauty contests were a political tool in the early 20th century used by African-American owned newspapers.
“They really wanted people to see Black is beautiful. So, it was really important to take the power and the narrative back. They would stage these beauty contests. It was sponsored by the newspaper. Then, they would publish the photographs.”
A piece in the last section is called “Posing Piece” and is by the artist Hank Willis Thomas. Thomas uses advertising in his piece and takes out the words.
Glab pointed out that when you see an image in a magazine advertising something, you usually know it’s an advertisement by what the text is in the ad.
“He takes that away so you don’t know where the ad came from or what it’s supposed to sell.”
In the video gallery there is an example by Kalub Lindy. It is a 13-minute video called “Get Up Love Hangover Remix.” The artist dresses up in different personalities and dances and sings.
“It’s all about this idea of how we can create our identity just by changing the way we look, the way we dress, the way dress, our hair, our voice and that kind of thing. It’s not really meant to be acting out. He’s just taking on different personas.”
Fashion can be seen throughout the exhibition.
“You see how fashion has changed over the years. It goes from the 19th century up until present day. So, you’ll see fashion from every different decade.”
Posing Beauty in African American Culture is curated by Deborah Willis and organized by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions, Pasadena, California.
For details, including the hours for the FIA, visit flintarts.org.
