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lovehustle:

exhibitnumber1:

notaskingforpermission:

TRIGGER WARNING for anti-black racism, simulation of cannibalism/genital cutting

WOW, ok. so this is an addition to the photo/article I posted earlier about this cake. Apparently it is more than just edible, it is an art piece that cries out/screams as it is being cut.

The artist is a mixed black person, Makode Linde, and makes lots of art about race. Putting this cake into context, makes it much more acceptable as a radical piece designed to cause discomfort (or at least provoke thought about racial consciousness or the lack thereof) to the Whites who will cut & consume it. The problem then is not the cake, which simply exists as a tool through which to provoke and showcase lingering racist and colonialist attitudes and practices, but rather those who are comfortable partaking in it.

And Im tempted to think Linde is a genius now.

I guess this also makes me wonder though, if White people are partaking and *enjoying* this piece, is it not then a failure for providing them with the horrid opportunity for them to live out their sick racist perversions?

Alsoooo… someone just made me think about the undoubtedly traumatizing effect this would have on ppl of African descent in the room… another downside of the artpiece.

As for good criticism, an anon posted this to so-treu:

I could only watch part of the video of that racist cake bullshit and the actor seems like they’re supposed to be screaming in pain (fucked up to start with) but they’re also trying really hard not to laugh at the same time, like the whole thing is *funny* to them, which adds yet another layer of fucked up to the already completely depraved and sick spectacle. Also, I could be mistaken, but the actor sounds like they’re probably a man. Because masculinizing Black women totally isn’t racist…

valid points. and now I just really want to see an artist statement/explanation of intention.

medeaismyfavourite adds:

Yeah, I suspected the point of the art piece itself was along the lines of Guillermo Gomez-Pena’s “The Couple in the Cage”. A similar thing happened there, too; from wikipedia:

“”The Couple in the Cage” documents the traveling performance of Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Coco Fusco, in which he exhibited two caged Amerindians from an imaginary island. While Gómez-Peña’s and Fusco’s intent was to create a satirical commentary on the notion of discovery, they soon realized that many of their viewers believed the fiction, and thought the artists were real “savages”.”

The artists themselves were the people in the cage, and people - mostly white people - paid to see their genitals, to hear them sing, to have them dance, all the while within this cage being displayed like museum exhibits. This was in 1992/3.

Things are not changing. We need to make them change.

This reminds me of that too. I watched that performance for a theater class and it was profoundly disturbing, but revealed A LOT about lingering tropes of exoticism and The Other among ‘your average american’. Its also interesting that these are being performed in museums, sites bound up in colonialism via the showcasing of non-white human remains (of which Saartje is just one case) and problematic ‘international’ exhibits that commodity, objectify, and other non-western cultures and peoples.

A note: the performance artist, Makode Linde, is in fact a man, and although he is mixed-race, he is definitely performing in blackface.

There’s just so much to unpack in regards to this.  I’d be really interested in reading a critical, oppression-conscious, performance-theory review on this.

There is no way around it…this is disgusting, incredibly racist…and if it’s point was not to be racist or to show racism, in some backwards-ass manner, it has failed.

WHAT. IN. THE. ENTIRE. FUCK?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

(via lovehustle-deactivated20120519)

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