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• 1 media/Tself_hero.jpg media/SAM_9015_web.jpg 2020-11-02T23:16:04+00:00 Tschabalala Self: The Gendered & Racialized Body 8 By: Riley Herendeen image_header 2020-12-07T22:57:44+00:00

  “A black women’s body was never hers alone”.[1]

  Throughout Tschabalala Self ‘s body of work, she explores her own experiences as a black woman, the falsehoods associated with black people, and the construction of race and gender in America. Through the particular and intricate use of painting, sewn, and print work, Self depicts exaggerated images of black women in order to explore immediate assumptions and generalized notions regarding the black female body. Self speaks on her work, stating “I am attempting to provide alternative, and perhaps fictional, explanations for the voyeuristic tendencies towards the gendered and racialized body; a body which is both exalted and abject.”[2] Tschabalala Self’s work is centered around the black community in which she grew up in, Harlem. Her work prompts the audience to critique and question the overall attitude, misconceptions, and fetishization that surrounds the black body.    
  
  Tschabalala Self’s 2020 exhibition, “Out of Body” features work that directly mirrors the artist’s life growing up in Harlem. The exhibition is divided into three groups of work created within a five-year period. While the first group of Self’s work focuses on the black female body, the second group focuses on urban life, and the third group emphasizes the concept of time, mortality, origin and its relationship to black bodies. 
  
  In one of her most notable works in the “Out of Body” exhibition (Group 1), “Out of Body” (2015), Self depicts two black women conversating, as large black limbs are notably strewn around the subjects, dissembled like dolls parts. Two exaggerated black caricatures with voluptuous breasts, buttocks, and thighs are joined with patterned clothing and malformed faces with disconcerted expressions.  Self utilizes fabric, painted canvas, colored pencil, flashe and acrylic to construct the vivid, abstract and texturized piece. In this piece, Self emphasizes black identity; how the black female body is regarded by black woman themselves, and how the black body is observed by society as a whole.
  
  In a similar intersectional piece, “Bellyphat” (2015), Self includes a black pregnant figure, associated with her pregnant sister at the time of construction. The painting appears exaggerated and colorful. The woman has her hands positioned around her enlarged stomach, as a black figure lurks over her shoulder, appearing to caress the subject. On the woman’s left thigh, an image of a house is displayed, as Self explains, “in honor of “woman as house, woman as vessel.””[3] Tschabalala Self states “I'm hoping that my work can transmit a truth and that truth can be appreciated and be for the edification of anyone who wants to really participate with it.”[4] In the “Out of Body” exhibition, Self’s goal is to reclaim black womanhood, while “correcting misconceptions propagated within and projected upon the black body.”[5] Self’s work within “Bodega Run” provides a redefinition and reclamation of blackness, as a whole.  
  
  Within Self’s “Bodega Run” series, the sociopolitical role of a Harlem convenient store is displayed, exploring the dark reality that people of color are forced to face within their own communities. “Racer” (2018), a piece that features a large, and exaggerated black male figure wearing a vibrant NASCAR jacket and sitting in front of a convenient store, appearing in a somber position, offers a critical observation regarding the influence of corporations, while further providing an important social critique. Within communities of color, people are subjected to processed and refined foods within community convenient stores. Large corporations are often responsible for such disparities. Self’s work explores these disparities, reinventing the ways in which people view communities of color, such as Harlem. She offers a glance into a life of poverty and struggle for colored communities, which exist because of deep roots in systematic and institutionalized racism in America. The influence that American corporations have on politics, identity, and culture is often dangerous, contributing to ongoing systems of racism and inequality. Self flawlessly captures this message through her work in the “Out of Body” exhibition.
  
  The falsehoods that are related to black people and black communities, at large, are redefined within Self’s work. In a NY Times interview, Self states, “There is one kind of blackness in America that’s publicly praised — one that seems to support the general consensus of black worth — while the larger, more commonplace reality of American blackness is often ignored. I attempt to explore that duality in my practice.”[6] Through her work, Self demonstrates the raw truth of existing as a black woman in America. Self recalls: “if you tell an honest story, then honesty transcends any kind of difference.”[7]
   

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  [1] “Fannie Lou Hamer: Woman of Courage.” Civil Rights Documentation Project Verticle File Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. Howard University.

  [2] “Tschabalala Self.” Tschabalala Self - 57 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy.

  [3] Pamela Reynolds. “At The ICA, 'Out Of Body' Explores Color And Texture Of Black Life In Harlem.” The Artery. January 16, 2020.

  [4] Ibid.

  [5] Pamela Reynolds. “At The ICA, 'Out Of Body' Explores Color And Texture Of Black Life In Harlem.” The Artery. January 16, 2020

  [6] “Nine Black Artists and Cultural Leaders on Seeing and Being Seen.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 June 2020.

  [7] Pamela Reynolds. “At The ICA, 'Out Of Body' Explores Color And Texture Of Black Life In Harlem.” The Artery. January 16, 2020.