Undesirability and Her Sisters // Black Women's Visual Work and the Ethics of Representation

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How Black women's visual work functions in an era of new racial and gender meaning In the wake of contemporary art's post-Black turn and the mainstreaming of intersectionality, Und esirability and Her Sisters charts a new genealogy of Black women's art that exposes the unfinished project of racial and gender empowerment in the twenty-first century. Tiffany Barber argues that Black women's social positions at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class are inherently queer, thus spurring unexpected aesthetic strategies that throw into high relief the ethical terrain of what it means to be Black and a woman now. Undesirability and Her Sisters collates what Barber terms "undesirable" representations of Black female bodies in recent American sculpture, collage, photography, and dance-based performance art by Kara Walker, Wangechi Mutu, Xaviera Simmons, and Narcissister. These works not only engage the visual senses but also incorporate olfactory, haptic, and sonic experiences that challenge traditional interpretations of Blackness and womanhood in art history, Black Studies, feminist and gender studies, dance and performance studies, and queer studies. Instead of transcendental beauty, wholeness, and individual and collective becoming, the perverse Black female figures profiled here eschew sublimation and synthesis as necessary responses to racial and gender subjugation in the past, present, and future. Through its unique, groundbreaking analysis, this book contributes to the ongoing discussions on the ethics of representation--the capacity to speak and act for oneself, to have significance and impact, and ultimately, to reject acknowledgment. Tiffany E. Barber is Assistant Professor of African American Art at the University of California, Los Angeles. Publisher: New York University Press Publish Date: May 20, 2025 Pages: 320 Language: English Type: Paperback EAN/UPC: 9781479829286 Dimensions: 8.8 X 5.9 X 1.3 inches | 1.1 pounds Alt: Tiffany Barber BISAC Categories: Music, Film & Performing Arts, Politics, Society & Current Affairs, Politics, Society & Current Affairs, Arts & Hobbies Show more