Lawdy Mama & the White Gaze
How the Code Works
The glasses are represented by the cursor. You can press and hold the mouse and hover over the woman. The idea is that the rose-colored glasses will erase the woman altogether, leaving just the clothes and background.
It's a commentary on how blissful ignorance of the black experience, although sometimes unintentional, is still ultimately created by the sender.
Lawda Mama's Background
Barkley Hendricks, the artist, mentioned he used to visit museums and rarely saw portrayals of black women. When "Lawda Mama" was finished in 1969, people assumed it was Angela Davis or Kathleen Cleaver, when in fact, it was actually someone the artist knew personally, his cousin. This piece speaks to representation in a time when black women were not represented in art or as art.
This painting examines what it means to be black as well, glorifying what is often attacked and ridiculed, like afros. Afros, sometimes seen as a political statement, are also just universally black. It's only political because of the white gaze. The almost perfect circle of her afro harkens back to religious paintings depicting angels with halos.
The gold-plated background seen in Byzantine eras, often used to represent royalty, is repurposed for this painting as well. Hendricks uses a series of painting styles, textures, and tools that have exemplified royalty and goodness, styles that have historically never been used to represent black bodies. The woman in the painting is regal in a way that she hasn't been portrayed in Western art. She's celebrated in her blackness, seen just as she is.
Thought Process
Sketches here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/grjammczgyu321o/AAD-Y_1tF1Q7Ys2ajrH38QJSa?dl=0
At first, I thought the biggest problem I'd have with this assignment is the color theory portion (and I was right!). I started out thinking through how I can use a blend to erase a specific color. The tutorials in class were helpful in revealing something, but how do I code erasure instead of a reveal? I started out with a grid, similar to what we saw in this week's tutorials. After some configuring, it would only produce square shapes that didn't look like the painting at all... back to the drawing board. After speaking with Xin Xin about pixelating images, I used their guide to create a pixelated version of Lawda Mama. I thought this was the best choice because it kept the integrity and purpose of the image. I thought this was important because if the painting wasn't familiar and easily noticeable, the idea of the rose-colored glasses is lost.
Reflection
I chose to recreate the white gaze through "rose-colored glasses". This phrase, according to Dictionary.com means that someone has a "cheerful or optimistic view of things, usually without valid basis." Having rose-colored glasses cooresponds to the way someone thinks. Sometimes it's a choice, but often times it's blissful ignorance. Whiteness has afforded white people the opportunity to opt out of engaging in racial inequalities, whether consciously or not. What's interesting is that the person "wearing" the glasses are technically the sender, but they're also the receiver. In this sense, they're a product of their own creation: whiteness. Take the "color-blind" stances that are used largely by white communities for example:
1. All Lives Matter
2. We're all one race, the human race.
3. I don't see color.
Each of these phrases pretends that everyone is on a level playing field. It aims at erasing the intersectional experiences and struggles that people of color face. Notice these are all a response. They're dependent without their context, meaning these phrases are using to belittle other voices.
Rose-colored glasses can be used to explain how whiteness erases black bodies and experiences.
I also think it's worth noting the failures while going through this process. Maybe applying blendMode() was too ambitious for week 5 of this class. Correct me if I'm wrong, but maybe blendMode() only works with a few certain colors to be able to conceal and reveal. If I strayed from using pink, blue, and white, the canvas immediately turns black. I also explored other ways to use the blendMode() with no succssful outcome. Maybe a pixelated version of an image, with many different gradients per square, is too many colors for blendMode altogether?
Sources:
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/barkley-l-hendricks-lawdy-mama
https://medium.com/@thatfemmeminemgirl/berkley-hendricks-and-the-uncanny-b4226052d8bb