CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE Homeless African American Stories: Valuation of Surreal Relief Prints of Skid Row for Social Justice A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts in Art, Art Education By Marty Cha May 2015 The thesis of Marty Cha is approved: ____________________________________________ ____________ Edward Alfano, M.S. Date ____________________________________________ ____________ Eileen Gizienski, M.F.A. Date ____________________________________________ ____________ Lesley Krane, M.F.A., Chair Date California State University, Northridge ii Dedication I wish to express gratitude to my Thesis Committee members who were more than generous with their knowledge and valuable time. A special thanks to Professor Lesley Krane, my Committee Chair, for her countless hours of reflecting, reading and patience throughout my thesis development. Thank you, Professor Edward Alfano, for facilitating a pathway toward my graduation and Professor Eileen Gizienski, for all the positive feedback and most of all for agreeing to serve on my committee. I would like to thank the Department of Art at California State University Northridge for allowing me to conduct my research and providing me the necessary resources when I needed them. I would like to give a special thanks to my aunt, surrogate mother and mentor, Dr. Marva T. Dixon, and to my partner and greatest advocate, Michael Sande, for their guidance and emotional support that made the completion of this research possible. iii Table of Contents Signature Page ii Dedication iii List of Illustration vi Abstract vii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Structure of Thesis 1 Chapter 2 Literature Review 7 2.1 Homeless African America 7 2.2 Art of Social Justice 11 2.3 Prints as Transformational 15 2.4 Realism and Surrealism 19 2.5 Storytelling Alongside Art 22 Chapter 3 Thematic Methodology 24 3.1 Visibility is a Life Story 25 3.1.1 Relief Print of Visibility 26 3.2 Displacement is a Life Story 28 3.2.1 Relief Print of Displacement 29 3.3 Shelterlessness is a Life Story 30 3.3.1 Relief Print of Shelterlessness 32 iv 3.4 Oppression is a Life Story 33 3.4.1 Relief Print of Oppression 35 3.5 Possessions is a Life Story 36 3.5.1 Relief Print of Possessions 37 3.6 Profiling is a Life Story 39 3.6.1 Relief Print of Profiling 41 3.7 Street Wisdom is a Life Story 41 3.7.1 Relief Print of Street Wisdom 43 3.8 Edification is a Life Story 44 3.8.1 Relief Print of Edification 46 Chapter 4 Conclusion 47 References 52 Appendix A: Illustrations 56 Appendix B: Online Questionnaire from SurveyMonkey 64 Appendix C: SurveyMonkey Results from Online Gallery 66 Appendix D: Gallery Exhibit Survey Form 67 Appendix E: Survey Results for Gallery Exhibit 69 Appendix F: Raw Data from SurveyMonkey and Gallery Exhibit 70 Appendix G: Institutional Review Board Protocol 71 v List of Illustrations Fig. 1. Visibility, 2015. Linoleum Block Print, 26 x 40 in. 56 Fig. 2. Displacement, 2015. Linoleum Block Print, 24 x 60 in. 57 Fig. 3. Shelterlessness, 2015. Linoleum Block Print, 26 x 40 in. 58 Fig. 4. Oppression, 2015. Linoleum Block Print, 26 x 40 in. 59 Fig. 5. Possessions, 2015. Linoleum Block Print, 26 x 40 in. 60 Fig. 6. Profiling, 2015. Linoleum Block Print, 26 x 40 in. 61 Fig. 7. Street Wisdom, 2015. Linoleum Block Print, 26 x 40 in. 62 Fig. 8. Edification, 2015. Linoleum Block Print, 26 x 40 in. 63 vi Abstract Homeless African American Stories: Valuation of Surreal Relief Prints of Skid Row for Social Justice By Marty Cha Master of Arts in Art, Art Education This thesis project demonstrates how life stories about homeless African Americans contextualize the making of original artwork in the form of abstracted relief prints. The goal of this work is to use printmaking processes as a form of activism for social justice. Another expectation of this project is to serve as a present-day model in activist art education, thereby advancing art pedagogy and demonstrating the control and responsibility to improve communities. In the tradition of Surrealism, this project uses a thematic approach to relief block print processes in order to assess whether or not non-pictorial and unconventional printmaking has the capacity to heighten awareness of or concern for the plight of African American homelessness on Skid Row in Los Angeles. I created eight large scale relief prints for this project and have examined them in the context of their embedded life stories to determine their effect on social activism. Skid Row contains the largest demographic of homeless African Americans in the Los Angeles community. This thesis project looks at this dire situation in order to challenge assumptions, stimulate hope and encourage equality through creativity. vii Chapter 1 Introduction Skid Row contains the largest population of homeless African Americans in Los Angeles County, and the County itself holds the largest population of homeless people in America. Although many approaches that address social justice through the arts exist, using the printmaking process for social justice through reproductions is a fundamental approach. This project seeks to determine whether the efficacy of non-pictorial imagery in the tradition of Surrealism has the capacity to elevate awareness and concern for the plight of African American homelessness on Skid Row. In contemporary art education, contextualizing information fosters the understanding of cultural phenomena; handmade prints provide a visual arts context for biographies of and oral histories by African Americans living on Skid Row, and they generate imagery applied to linoleum blocks, the technique used for this project. The process of transcribing life stories to images will be discussed in the methodology section. This project reveals that life stories not only affect the sympathetic reader, but also they contextualize surreal relief prints in the campaign for social justice among homeless African Americans on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Structure of Thesis The literature review is comprised of five sections. Section 2.1, “Homeless African America,” describes individual homeless African Americans on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles by comparing their crises from historical and present day perspectives both locally and nationally. Homeless not Hopeless by Edna Molina-Jackson provides several “day in the life” accounts of homelessness in Skid Row, Los Angeles (Molina-Jackson). Her book was inspired by a census study of Skid Row in which she participated. The survey enabled her to compile an 1 analysis of the social and survival networks of homeless African and Latin males. Elijah Anderson’s book, Against the Wall: Poor, Young, Black, and Male; and Charles Henry Orr’s, Homeless: A Challenge to African American Males, focus on why so many poor and homeless black men exist, and under what circumstances can successful African Americans thrive when faced with injustice. Additionally, Jürgen Von Mahs’, Down and Out in Los Angeles and Berlin: The Sociospatial Exclusion of Homeless People, provides a cross-cultural comparison of homelessness between Los Angles and Berlin. Both cities contain the highest population of dispossessed for their respective countries. Mahs provides an insightful analysis of sociospatial exclusion that is particularly applicable to Skid Row. According to Mahs, sociospatial exclusion comprises legal, service and market exclusions from homeless African Americans (Mahs 3). Section 2.2, “Art of Social Justice,” identifies how surreal social justice art work could elevate attentiveness to the problem of African American Homelessness. Making sense of the contemporary critical social justice model will be necessary, and three authors provide valuable discourse in that area and are included in the literature review: Ozlem Sensory with Robin DiAngelo and Marit Dewhurst. Sensory and DiAngelo’s examinations in Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education provides explanations of literacy in social justice and egalitarianism, while addressing misconceptions about both principles. Dewhurst’s book Social Justice Art! A Framework for Activist Art Pedagogy describes academic relevancy through the application of inclusive methodology in art education by a combination of formalist art process and justice based learning in schools. These are key concepts I will discuss. Included with the aforementioned books is a critical essay written by Paul Duncum, Engaging Public Space: Art Education Pedagogies for Social Justice; it discusses 2 the significance of engaging public space from a critical social justice perspective, and, following his example, the space of homeless African Americans should not be disregarded. Section 2.3, “Prints as Transformational,” examines how prints have engaged the public since the advent of paper and how they have functioned as a means of communication for centuries. I will discuss the art historical and contemporary evolution of printing, particularly the kinds of prints that depict people. Innovations of thought and process through printmaking have initiated meaningful change both actual and inspirational throughout society. Two books specifically engage this project, and I discuss them in the literature review. Political Art and Printmaking: A Brief and Partial History by Josh MacPhee with accompanying essays from his constituents, Deborah Caplow and Eric Triantafillou; and Learning Linocut: A Comprehensive Guide to the Art of Relief Printing through Linocut by Susan Yeates, detail the creative process utilized in the methodologies section of the thesis and discusses the processes and techniques fundamental to understanding relief printmaking. Section 2.4, “Realism and Surrealism,” challenges assumptions about homeless African Americans, and, overwhelmed with stereotypes, contemporary Africans and Black Surrealists strive and beckon for more change through their art [visual and literary] and activism. In conjunction with and contrast to critical analogies that reference realism, I cite an article entitled, “Media Images and the Poor,” because the author, Heather E.