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- All Subjects: Colonialism
- Creators: Lauderdale, Pat
Description
The life of Jean-Michel Basquiat is often misinterpreted in artistic discourse. From a social justice perspective, Basquiat's work is not merely art. Despite the symbolism and subject matter open for analysis, Basquiat articulated the self in relation to nuances of race, socio-economy, and historical scripts based upon real relations and conditions. Of the genre of Neo-Expressionism without a disciplined schooling in art, Jean-Michel is categorized as 'primitive' in style and form, labeled the "first black artist." Beyond the art world's possessive confines and according to post-colonial aesthetics, Jean-Michel articulates the existence of a learning self. With a pedagogical lens, a process of becoming an "artist" deepened Basquiat's expressions of self in relation to a “white” art world, which typically restricted the artist to specific categories and definitional parameters.
While recognition of the "artist" highlights the limitations of 'public' and 'self' in pedagogy, learning of the self through Neo-Expressionism is contingent upon articulating a situated existence among particular "publics," with regard to time and place. Variable dimensions of recognition create a fragmented self with transitional 'stages' and a series of acute shifts re-establish the definitional boundaries of art, definers, and ultimately the self and “Other”. These shifts continuously create new margins of the avant-garde and the self is redefined by art and discourse to sustain capital inflow, thereby replicating the colonial nature of capitalism with regard to communication, material and discovery, and “Other”. The process eschews a realized finality while expression as a relational communication of the situated persona redefines one's identity and demarcates a value of the self.
While recognition of the "artist" highlights the limitations of 'public' and 'self' in pedagogy, learning of the self through Neo-Expressionism is contingent upon articulating a situated existence among particular "publics," with regard to time and place. Variable dimensions of recognition create a fragmented self with transitional 'stages' and a series of acute shifts re-establish the definitional boundaries of art, definers, and ultimately the self and “Other”. These shifts continuously create new margins of the avant-garde and the self is redefined by art and discourse to sustain capital inflow, thereby replicating the colonial nature of capitalism with regard to communication, material and discovery, and “Other”. The process eschews a realized finality while expression as a relational communication of the situated persona redefines one's identity and demarcates a value of the self.
ContributorsDiffie, Dillon (Author) / Lauderdale, Pat (Thesis advisor) / Vicenti Carpio, Myla (Committee member) / Swadener, Beth Blue (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Since 1998 and as recently as November 2018, 165 Tibetans have burned themselves alive in public protest, both inside Tibet and in exile. This study foregrounds Tibetan refugees’ interpretations of the self-immolation protests and examines how the exile community has socially, politically, and emotionally interrogated and assimilated this resistance movement. Based upon eleven months of ethnographic field research and 150 hours of formal interviews with different groups of Tibetan refugees in northern India, including: freedom activists, former political prisoners, members of the exile parliament, teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, families of self-immolators, and survivors of self-immolation, this project asks: What does activism look like in a time of martyrdom? What are the practices of solidarity with the dead? How does a refugee community that has been in exile for over three generations make sense of a wave of death occurring in a homeland most cannot access? Does the tactic of self-immolation challenge Tibetan held conceptions of resistance and the conceived relationship between politics, religion and nation? These questions are examined with attention to the sociopolitical expectations and vulnerabilities that the refugee community face. This study thus analyzes what it means to mourn those one never knew, and examines the fractious connections between resistance, solidarity, trauma, representation, political exigency, and community cohesion. By examining the uncomfortable affect around self-immolation, its memorialization and representation, the author argues that self-immolation is a relational act that creates and ushers forth witnesses. As such, one must analyze the obligations of witnessing, the barriers to witnessing, and the expectations of solidarity. This project offers the theory of exigent solidarity, whereby solidarity is understood as a contested space, borne of expectation, pressure, and responsibility, with its expression complex and its execution seemingly impossible. It calls for attention to the affective labor of solidarity in a time of ongoing martyrdom, and demonstrates that in the need to maintain solidarity and social cohesion, a sense of mutual-becoming occurs whereby the community is reconciled uneasily into a shared fate.
ContributorsVehaba, Alana Sara (Author) / Talebi, Shahla (Thesis advisor) / Lauderdale, Pat (Committee member) / Lee, Charles (Committee member) / Carrico, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019