Visualising Balance, Balancing Visualites Race, Epistemology and Equality in Visual Culture
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Visualising Balance, Balancing Visualites Race, Epistemology and Equality in Visual Culture A Master’s Thesis for the Degree of Master of Arts (120 credits) in Visual Culture Sarah Samira El-Taki Division of Art History and Visual Studies Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences Lund University KOVM12, 30 credits Supervisor(s): Linda Fagerström Spring semester 2018 Sarah El-taki Visualising Balance Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have supported me during the writing of this thesis, my supervisor Linda Fagerström, my colleagues Lena Quelvennec and Eildih Urquhart, my friends Cecilia Aketch, Rahel Weldeab Sebhatu, Mohamed Hussein and Tawonga Chitindingu and my sister May El-taki. Most importantly I would not have been able to complete my masters studies without the support and guidance of my mother Nadia Guerraoui. I dedicate this work to my maternal grandmother Sâadiya Bashar who passed away during the writing of this thesis. i Sarah El-taki Visualising Balance Abstract Visualising Balance, Balancing Visualites: Race, Epistemology and Equality in Visual Culture Sarah Samira El‐Taki This thesis is based on my interpretation of three particular visual examples that were created in relation to the racial tensions that were occurring at the time of their production. My visual examples are (1) the 2016 campaign advert commissioned by Operation Black vote (2) The music video I’m not Racist by the American rapper Joyner Lucas relaesed in 2017 (3) Sir Davey’s Proclamation Board to the Aborigines 1816 which circulated around 1850-1888. These images were created with the intention of addressing racial tensions, they can be labelled as didactic images, as they offer the viewer a means of taking responsibility and action regarding the respective event or tension. Using the proclamation board as a historic example I analyse the symbols in all three images and question how a visuality addressing racism uses the same narratives as a colonial image. I question how these symbols work to keep definitions and understanding of race and racism within narrow margins that are defined by a whiteness that is believed to be objective. Using Black Feminist Thought as a methodology I also question how can we create a visuality that attempts to represent racism without the epistemology or ontology of a racialised person? How does this reproduce historical representation of racial tensions? How does this visuality work to centre or de- centre the position of a white subjectivity? How does epistemology work for or against the creation of this visuality? Keywords: Race – Epistemology – Whiteness – Equality – Post Race ii Sarah El-taki Visualising Balance Table of Contents Acknowledgments................................................................................................................... i Abstract..................................................................................................................................... ii List of Illustrations ...................................................................................................................iv Introduction................................................................................................................................1 Aim and research question………..…………………………………………..….....….......2 Background and relevance…………………………………….……………………..….....2 Theory and method……………………………………………………………………..…..4 Empirical material and delimitation………....……………………………………....…......6 Previous research……………………………………………………………………….…..7 Disposition of thesis…………………………………………..…………………………....8 Chapter 1 - Whiteness as invisible, Whiteness as subjectivity ………………….......…..….....9 1.1 Richard Dyer’s White ………………....………………………………………..…..….9 1.2 Whiteness as invisible …………………………………………………………….….11 1.3 Locating whiteness within the myth of post-race …………………………………….13 Chapter 2 - Empirical material ……………………………………………………………… 14 2.1 Overview of Operation Black Vote’s “A VOTE IS A VOTE” ….......……………… 14 2.2 Overview of Joyner Lucas’ music video I'm not Racist ………......………………… 16 2.3 Focused analysis of Operation Black Vote’s “A VOTE IS A VOTE” ……………….21 2.3.1 Particularities of whiteness……………………………………………………....21 2.3.2 Re/presenting the Other ………………………………………………………....25 2.3.3 Equalising Object ………………………………………………………………..31 2.4 Focused analysis of Joyner Lucas’ music video I'm not Racist ……………………....36 2.4.1 Particularities of whiteness……………………………………………………....38 2.4.2 Equalising Object ………………………………………………………..............39 2.4.3 Re/presenting the Other ………………………………………………………....41 Chapter 3 - Govenor Davey’s Proclamation Board to the Aborigines ……………………….48 3.1 Overview of Govenor Davey’s Proclamation Board to the Aborigines ……………....48 3.2 Re/presenting the Other .....…………………………………………………………...56 3.3 Particularities of whiteness……………………………………………………………57 3.4 Equalising Object ……..……………………………………………………………...58 Chapter 4 - The Master’s Tools ……………………………………………………………...60 4.1 Racialised ontology/Racisalised epistemology/Racialised visuality……………….....62 4.2 Racialised consciousness ……………………………………………………………..64 4.3 Objective objectivity. Equalising equality ……………………………………………66 Conclusion................................................................................................................................69 Appendix..................................................................................................................................74 Bibliography.............................................................................................................................80 iii Sarah El-taki Visualising Balance List of Illustrations Fig 1. Operation Black Vote, A Vote is a Vote, 2016. Created by Saatchi and Saatchi. P. 14. Fig 2. Screenshot (3m 03sec) from music video I’m not Racist, Joyner Lucas, 2017. P. 16. Fig 3. Screenshot (1m 34sec) from music video I’m not Racist, Joyner Lucas, 2017. P. 18. Fig 4. Screenshot (3m 49sec) from music video I’m not Racist, Joyner Lucas, 2017. P. 19. Fig 5. Screenshot (6m 16sec) from music video I’m not Racist, Joyner Lucas, 2017. P. 20. Fig 6. Operation Black Vote, A Vote is a Vote, 2016. Created by Saatchi and Saatchi. P. 21. Fig 7. Screenshot (3m 03sec) from music video I’m not Racist, Joyner Lucas, 2017. P. 36. Fig 8. Govenor Davey’s Proclamation to the Aborigines 1816, ca. 1850-1888. P. 48. Fig 9. Frame A. Cropped section from Govenor Davey’s Proclamation to the Aborigines 1816, ca. 1850-1888. P. 49. Fig 10. Frame B. Cropped section from Govenor Davey’s Proclamation to the Aborigines 1816, ca. 1850-1888. P. 50. Fig 11. Frame C. Cropped section from Govenor Davey’s Proclamation to the Aborigines 1816, ca. 1850-1888. P. 51. Fig 12. Frame D. Cropped section from Govenor Davey’s Proclamation to the Aborigines 1816, ca. 1850-1888. P. 51. Fig 13. ‘Coolest Monkey in the Jungle’ hoodie advertsised on H&M website, 2017. P. 78. Fig 14. Dove advert depicting a black woman transforming into a white woman, 2017. P. 78 Fig 15. Pepsi advert featuring model Kendall Jenner offering a pepsi to police officers during a protest. 2017. P. 79. iv Sarah El-taki Visualising Balance Introduction That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we black are wise. Her bandage hides two festering sores That once perhaps were eyes. Langston Hughes, Justice.1 So, when a white person holds objectionable views, racist views for instance, we rightly condemn them. But when equally unacceptable views or practices come from someone who isn’t white, we’ve been too cautious frankly - frankly, even fearful - to stand up to them. David Cameron, speech at Munich Security Conference, 2011.2 This thesis is based on my interpretation of three particular visual examples that were created in relation to the racial tensions that were occurring at the time of their production. My visual examples are (1) the advert commissioned by Operation Black vote to encourage black and non white minorities in the UK to vote in the 2016 EU referendum. (2) The music video I’m not Racist by the American rapper Joyner Lucas, released around the time of the Charlottesville clashes in the summer of 2017, between various groups of the extreme right and those who oppose them. (3) Sir Davey’s Proclamation Board to the Aborigines, an image that was created around the time of The Black War, circa 1850-1888, where native population of today’s Tasmania fought against the British settlers and colonisation. These images were created with the intention of addressing the very tensions that I outlined above, they can be labelled as didactic images, as they offer the viewer a means of taking responsibility and action regarding the respective event or tension. In analysing these images I became surprised by how the two contemporary images reproduce similarities apparent in the proclamation board from 1829 in their formal qualities. All three images were created by a white hegemony which is obvious in relation to the proclamation board but not so for the two contemporary images. This thesis will explore the relationship between epistemology and the creation of images and a visuality. How does one inform the other and vice versa in a racialised context? The campaign advert was found whilst searching for visual sources relating to the ‘Leave’ campaign. Some groups who campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union adopted a racist tone that sought to vilify immigrants, specifically those who were non- European. This image appearing within this Google search is interesting as its