A e sth eti c

Ln r e r v e n t i o n s

It. l W" YSEN G It G ED with the issue of represenra ti on as a means by

wh ich t he self is cons eruceed and made visible. in her new work Em ma
.... mos makes the canvas, the blank sbeeeof paper, a cu ltural site for crit i-
cal explo ration of art practices. Interrogat ing t he way in which aesrheric
sensibility is shaped by [I~ parr icula riry ofartistic vision . as well as show.
Ing how t hat vision is informed by co nscrainrs imposed by a concrete pol-
iti es of represent arioo th at maint ai ns and pe rpetuates t he SU t US q uo .
Amos di srupts rhe esse nria l isr assumpt ion that a pu re imag ina t ion
shapes arti stic work. Show ing us that all art is Sit U3U.'d in history, that ehe
indi vidual choice of subject matt er refleces that siruared ness, in her new
work Amos articulates a vision of universality t hat coexists in a d ialectical
relat ionship to the particu lar.
rarr ing from the standpoin t rbar rhe po lit ics of racism and sexism cre-
ate a culrural conrexc wherein whir e mal e arti sts work with in an art world
that is predi sposed to acco rd t hem recogn it ion and visibi lit y. Am os
beg ins he r new work by calli ng atte ntion to rhe consrrainrs rhar lim it and
confi ne all those "oche rs" who are not in t he pr ivileged catego ry. Wi thin
whu e-su premacisecapital ist pat riarchy, images of power and freedom are
symbolica lly personified b)' t he wh it e male "sub ject ." in rel ati on to
whom all ot her bei ngs art: cons tr uc ted as unfree "ob jects. " At ebe outer
limi ts of otherness , t hen . one finds the image of black femalene ss, person-
if}'ing wit hin the existi ng cultu re of domination. powerl essness. a lack of
agenq', no capacit y for transcendent vision . These t rain rema in the prop.
enies c f the powerful. Any black female who dares ro clnim t hem is ouc of
place. t ransg ressing bou ndarie s, a menace eo sociecy,
Few Afriam.American women areisu would understand t his bet ter than
Amos. Meking a commit ment to art in the 19~0s a.nd moving from rhe sbel-
(era! comfort of privileged-c lass Southern black li(e to the Central School of
Art in London, and finally to New York City, where she hoped to come into
164 "IlTON M Y N IND

ElRma A N1OJ. The Overseer . 19 9 2. A rrylidli"tn i'l1m~s wish Ajriran jabru

and bordtrS. 84 " x 68." C()lirt~J rJj tIN arUJ/.

her own as an art isr, Amos knows first hand d le barriers that keep art a dosed
world on ly the cbcsen can enrer, Like ma ny b lack an ises. fema le and mal e.
she can look back and ide:m ify the segregated worl d of black cult u re as the
locat ion rhar first inspired her eo choose to make art . In that world it was as
natu ral fo r a b lack female eo d erm an: as a terra in for cu ltu FolI exploration as
for the sun eo slu oe. g reg;lt ion mean t that oo ooe q uesriooed Amos 's t ighr
rn cla im urt . Since she was raised in a home where an and b lack intellectua l
work were valu ed , writers and arti sts wert: fam iliars in her world . Th e b arri-
ers and checks 0 11 creariviry began when she left t hat p roeeceed space on the
margin to t ry and m ake it as an an ise 10 t he mainstre am an worl d .
Being t!le only woman membe r ofSp iral, a g roup formed by b lack anistS
in th e 1960s t hat included Romaee Bearden . o rman Lewis, and H ale
\VorxJrufT. Amos learned early to ....rork around the sexism of men , blac k and
wh ite , who did not rake ....tomen art ists seriously. Trying to sho w pe. nri ngs
that featured whne figures, AmosC'aJT1(' faa- to face with t he racism of the art
wodd, which felt it could be st package her work, or th at of any black artis t,
by pro jecting it as always and on ly abou t t he represen rarion of block images .
De sp ite insnnn ionahzed systems o f do mi nati on th at di scou rag e females
fmm ma king a lifelong com m irmem to an, Amos cont in ues to work . After
years of b eing si len r about th e ways in which th e po lit ics of do m ination
shape an prscnces. Am os began to spea k ou t in the 19705. Her speak ing
was info rmed by fem in ist cu lt u ral po li t ics, co llabo l"J rive reb ell ion wit h
« her .....omen artis ts, end engagemem w it h fem inist publicenons.
 While women an isesare c fren encouraged to talk in interviews ebou r
Ihe impact of racism and sexism on thei r live s and work , it is commo n
knowledge that an arrisr risks having her work taken less seriously in t he
an world if th e subject marrer is overtly polit ical. Yel aga in and agai n
art ists from marg inalized g roups. who continually st rugg le eo creare a cul-
rura l conrexr whe re th eir work can be recog nized , find they must place
art istic practice in a polit ical CO!Ht'Xt not only to idt'lHify t he issues but to
overcome limitations, (0 create t he space where boundaries Can be rran-
scended . where the work and th e arti SI can g row. Clarifying t he reasons
this resistance is necessary in Whtn IIx Moon U'1I..\'lt Rid, Trin h T. Minh - Ha
explains: "I c challenge the reg imes of representati on t hat 8m'em a society
is to conceive of how a politics can tra nsform rea lity rat her th an merely
ideo logize it. As t he strugg le move s onwa rd and assumes new. d ifferent
forms. it is bound to recom pose subjecti vity and praxis whi le displacing
rhe weydiverse cc lcural strategies relate eo ooe aooeber in the consrinuioo
of social and potincsllife." Charting in her early work t he social consrruc-
rion of the art ist's ident ity in relarion to the private world of kin and fam-
ily.of loved ones chosen outside t he realm of the familiar, in her new work
Amos int errogat es from the space of the unknown , th e unfam iliar. the
da ngerous. Placing her own image in paintings and prin ts th at de pict a
world where she could never "belong ," Amos resists obj ecti fication and
subordination , Subversively announcing her subject ivit y via t he imagina-
tive app rop riation of the space of power occup ied by white males, she
eme rges from the shadows to call anennon to subjugated knowled ge. In
the painti ng Tht Otmttr she links repressive white supremacy to attempts
ro com rol and define images of whiteness and blackness.
Exposing in her work t he way racism depi cts black folks as objects
mrher than sub jects of representat ion, Amos prcblernntizes whit eness.
Borh in u tal ) DrtaNl and in AIrs. GaNg" III 's Shirt she-calls anenr ion to the
t'dcialize<1 sex ism of wh ite male pa inters lik e Gaugui n. Samaras. and
man y others . who were never t roubl ed by t hei r rendering of th e dark
body in ways th at rein forced white cult ural imperialism, Of course. both
hisrorically and in cont empornry rimes. when white art ists chOOS(' [Q use
black subject matter in their work it is seen by t he art world as a sign of
their progre ssive inclusive vinon . C ritiques that q uesti on the nature of
rhar rep resentat ion tend to be viewed as bring ing to bear unnecessa ry
polit ical criteria to the rranscendenr practi ce of making an . \Vh ile Amos

L
1t.6 AltT 0 .... MY N IN O

E"I1M ,b ' DJ. Mrs. Geugin 's Shi rt. J994. Silk collpgraph, 1m" plxJtograph.
t T" x 9" x 2#2 /14. #, CfUlrttJl o!llNarwl.

Interrogates the sexism and racism t hoU has shaped the arnsnc vision of
mll ny white amscs. de termini ng the ways t hey represent images of d iffer-
ence. her intent is ncr to censure but to illuminate t hroug h exposure. Pre-
sent ing us with representations of white supremacy via her man)' images
of the Ku Klux KJan in works such as Chow and Caplllnd. she arriculares
the link berween rhar whiteness wh ich seeks to ehm inar e and erase all
memory of darkness and that whiteness which cla ims the black bod y in
 A [ j, TtIETI C I ~ T [ ' V (~ T I O ' S liP

represeruarion only to hold it captive'. To resist t hat claiming, Amos chal-

lens es the use of blackness as the space where wh iteness can be redefined .
To make that challenge she must lay arti stic hands on l~ white body.
By laying claim to t he white body throug h a process of ob jecti ficat ion.
visually represented in the painting lfltwk Sll fI , and the prim Work SlIil Try'
On, Amos imegi naeively appropriates tilt.' naked white: mall' fig ure to gain
arris tic visib ility. Subverti ng t he parad ig m to seize power, rath er t han
deifying white male power, she pokes fun at it. Her white male body suit
is not impre ssive. It looks ridicu lous. A sati ric comment on the st upidi t y
of categories. thi s playfu l moc kery illust rates the realit y of dominat ion .
In \Vtt)' ( 0 Go, Carl Bttby and A. R. Pink Dimilwl BItteR we are asked to reo
exam ine race and ge nder in relation to conr rol over t he image. By
reclaiming a site of image makin g Incl usive of her subject ivity. and using
it to crit iqu e and sig nify. Amos imag inati vely di smant les the str uctu res
of race and gende r privilege. T his is rhe art of insurrection .
Linking her arti sti c pra cti ce wit h mili tant resist ance to whi tt'
supremacy traditionally pe rsonified by the revolutionary leade r Malcolm
X, in X Flag and Alalro/Ill X . AI(Jf'It']. Ma(mea" J Me, Amos interrogates a
politics of t he visual wherein wh itt' male artists are Irequenely acclaimed
when they usc black fi gures in their work while African. AmN ican arrists
receive a message from th e established art world that t heir use of wh ite
images will not be embraced. that even in the world ofimag inati\'e arns-
tic practice no one will accep t and condone black artist s toyi ng with, con-
(foiling , shaping images of whiteness.
Amos asse rts her right to work wi th th e white image. Rath er th an
regardi ng rhar imag e as "crher," she urSt's recog ni ti on of t he cu lt ural
mixi ng th at calls into qu estion an emphasis on racial purity. Cri t ical of
this type of narrow nationalism, Amos hig hlights what the black Brit ish
culrura l crit ic Paul Gi lroy in T be Black Atlanlie lif10rld ident ifies as "t he
rheorisaoon of creolisanon. men sssge. mestiza je. and hyb ndi ry," rerms
that allow us to nam e Mthe processes of cult ural mutation and restl ess
(disjconrin uiry t hat exceed racial d iscou rse and avoid cap t ure by its
agents," Against the backd rop of white sup remacy, rep resent ed in paint-
ing and print by images of t he Confederate Rag and the Ku Klux Klan .
Amos places images of tha t cult ural mixing that occurs despite racism .
She Juxtaposes t he reality of t his cult ural miscegenati on wit h t he (anw)'
of pur it y. Her work is in sharp cont rast to tha r of art ist s who have used

..
 lti8 ART O N M Y MIN D

En/NUl Amos. X Flag. 1993. Acrylicpaiming, Aj rfcIIR j" bric. Co"jtdtratejlag,

laYr phMIJ lraRJlw. ' 8" x 40." COJIrttS) allJNartlSl.

black and whit e figures in ways cha t rom ant icize ot herness , present it
always and only as chat which cann or be assrmila red. AgalOs( those his-

7
 AL5 T IIC T IC IN T EIIV£ r<. T IO N S 16 9

ro nca l and current aces ofappropriatio n where whitene ss is figured as th e

sig n of power and blackness as a sig n of powe rlessne ss, Amos co nst ructs
an art ist ic landscape whe re there is pa rity. H er int ent is not JUS t to bre ak
t he silence surround ing issue s of race and gende r as I he)' affect su bjec t:
s he inte rven e s a nd di sr upt s to lay th e g rou nd wo rk for a new vis ion of
arrisr ic freedo m . T hat visio n can no t be reali zed un le ss a ll th e form s of
censo rship. both interna l and exte rnal, 2 ((' removed .
No doub t like many African . Arne rican artists , once Amos uodcrsrocd
tha t t he a rt world was not as inrere sred in t he WOrk she did [hat had wh itt'
figures . she suppressed her own fascina uon with t he inte rplay of different
Images. That self-ce nso rsh ip was ul ti ma te ly mor e In g hrenin g rhan the
narrow not ions of black art imposed by limited aesrhe ric uod ersrandmg .
H er new work rep udi ate s th is ea rl ie r censo rship. Mor e br oadl y, it chal-
lenges a rrad inonal understand ing ofcensorship as it effecrs art istic prac-
t ice. Ce nso rsh ip is mo st popu larly understood as a eecnc used by th e
co nse rvat ive right ro cont ro l repre sen eanon . Amos ident ifie s chose
unspoken and unac k no wled ged fo rms of censo rsh ip t ha t may e me rge
from an established ar t worl d that sees itself as always on rhe side ofarris-
lie freedo m . l nrerrogaring rhar world within the realm of rh c visual , she
shifes rhe di scus sion away from a private behind -r he -scene s ralk abour
race and gender di fference 10 a pu blic "visual " discourse.
In her new wo rk Em m a Am os arr icu l:u e s a pedagogy of res ist a nce
where in she calls for th e linking of mem ory with power. Marga ret Ran -
da ll reminds us in GUlbtring Rllgt th at Authentic powe r ce rnes fro m a
W

fully developed sense: of self possible onl y when bot h ind ividual and col-
lective memo ry is retrie ved : ' l inki ng her art p rac t ices ro those of her
peers in (he wor ks X ·RIIY Shou i ng ,\Ionnu" u U'iJ, Nn ,./fff V"" UIf. a nd
Frugmm u / or Altl , Amos lays cla im 10 a legacy of pa rti cipat ion in avant-
ga rde art practi ces where black p(('scnce is mos t ofeen de nied and erased .
Again rbc issu e is visibilicy-c-rec ognie ion .
Rewor king rhe narrat ive of democ racy an d freedom . Amos evokes Ihe
flag . wh ich appears again and agai n in her new wo rk. However, il is repre~
ser ned as only a curtain. a veil rbar must be lifted if we art to see d early the
polit ics of ou r culrural realit y. These act s of recognition , of bo th bl ack
Image s and of racial and cu irural realit ies, come via acrs ofercnsg ression and
resiseeoce, borde r CTOSSings, and by participation in tile cultural revoluti on,
which Amos evokes th rou gh her use of th e X symbol. In th is wo rk . X
appears as t he chosen space of marg inaliry where th e oppressed and
exp loited exit from a hin ory that de n ies th em subjectivity. refusing to be
OOten, rejecting associatio n wit h thi s dyna m ic. Th is refusal is high lighted
in th e prim SIal/ding 0111. where the black male thi nker is ser apart. watching
t he silhouet ted white male and female app ro pria te space. It is this chosen
posit ion of "ouuider" that Iibe rares the black male figure. Fret' of rhe esrab-
Iisbed domina riog orde r. a freedom gai ned by d islocat ion and di$lSSOCiat ion,
by cbe dyrwmcs of seruggle. black artists are empowered to be self-defining,
critica lly reflective. able to challenge. revise, and rework history. An is revo-
lunonized in the pmss. Freedom of expression is made more inclusive.
The rejecti on of domi nation as the o nly poi nt ofcontact betwee n t hose
who are d ifferen t that takes pla ce in th ese pr int s and pai ntings does nc r
lead to a reversal wh erein black powe r subst it utes irself for white powe r.
Instead . it allows for radically different lib e rarory visions of freed om to
e me rge. In Ih is fret' wor ld . ide nt it ies are not sta t ic but always chang ing.
C risscrossing and crossb reedi ng beco me mutual pracnces. and the power
10 explo re a nd jo urne y is exte nded to a ll. Wriring abo ut the need for an
insurrect ion that does not simpl y m irror the do m inant cultu re in Whtn Iht
1\ 1001/ \flpxu Red . Trinh T. Min h-ha rem inds us that "To di sru pt t he exist -
ing syste ms of domi nant values and 10 challenge t he very fou ndation of a
socia l and cu ltural o rde r is not merel y to destroy a few prej ud ices o r to
reve rse power relar ions within the te rms of an eco nomy of the sam e- . . .
Aware rba r oppre-ssion ca n be- loca ted bo th in th e sto ry told and in th e
tel ling of the Story, an art cr it ica l of soci al real it y neither relies on mere
co nse ns us no r doe s it ask pe rm issio n fro m ideology." De fi antl y, Amos
places her image amo ng the repressive fascist forces of white supremacy in
Blmdf oltb and Tilt Ot·trJlff 10 counter a cu ltu ral politics of excl usion and
den ial char would sepa roate- th e practice of artistic freedom from co ncrete
struggles for liberation . O ne str uggle makes th e ocher possible, not just
for African·Amer ican art ists but for any art ist . TIle co nvergence of possi-
biliry that is hinted a t in the painting i\ lalro/m X. I\1",.lty. i\! al;SJt, p nd M t is
an example of how Amos's work rejects a bi nary approach to th e polit ics of
differcnt"e t hat wou ld have everyone's identity be fixed. stat ic, and always
separatt'. She replaces t his parad igm wit h one where m ixing is celebrated,
where rhe cultural interchanges rhar d isrupt patterns of do m inatio n are
d ism antled so th at an et hic of reciprociry and mutual engageme nt forms
cbe aesthetic g rou nds where the su bject can be consta ntl y changing.