Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Intersectional Art Practice
- cherrydodd
- Sep 24
- 5 min read
As I encouraged black women to become active feminists, I was told that we should not become "women's libbers" because racism was the oppressive force in our life -not sexism. To both groups I voiced my conviction that the struggle to end racism and the struggle to end sexism was naturally intertwined, that to make them separate was to deny a basic truth of our existence that race, and sex are both immutable facets of human identity.' - Bell Hooks, Ain't I a Woman
I'm no stranger to everyday sexism. I have been whistled at on the street. I have been stared at intensely, obviously, and uncomfortably across public spaces. I have had crude sex jokes made at me by a stranger in a pub. As skin crawling and spine chilling as these experiences were I still had a certain privilege in this systematic, patriarchal degradation of women. As a white, woman I knew that these things were happening to me purely because I am a woman. That was the only defining aspect of my identity that these sad little men found appalling. Now, imagine these things are happening to you and you're not white, financially stable, able-bodied and the degradation is being targeted at not only your gender but your race, class, and disability as well.
For a long time, sexism and racism were seen as two entirely separate social issues, with one not overlapping the other - or one at least being more pressing and the other bubbling on the back burner. In 2014 kimberlé Crenshaw published Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Colour in the Stanford Law Review. This essay re-defined our contemporary understanding of identity politics furthering her own Intersectional theory proposed in 1989 into the public eye. Intersectionality is a skeleton for understanding that unique experiences of discrimination and privilege are equally influenced by identity characteristics such as race, gender, sexuality, disability, and nationality. As art becomes vessel for human experience and human struggle it is natural that intersectional art practices are core to contemporary art.
Lubaina Himid's work navigates the sexist, racist and classist treatment of POC, asylum seekers and émigrés. The 2004 installation Naming the Money sees 100 painted silhouette boards depicting the African-slave experience in royal courts of 18th-century Europe positioned throughout the exhibition space. Each of these cut-outs is a character which Himid, has named and provided a back story for some of which are accompanied with music or longer written pieces. Himid describes the work as " people whom I seem to have invented, summoned, written into being and made real, I realise that this work is much more about naming than it is about money. It is an attempt to get to the bottom of the dilemma of losing your name, being relieved of your real identity, being saddled with another more convenient or less embarrassing identity and how you then have to invent something else equally real simply to survive, to make sense of being alive. It is the story of the slave/servant, but also of the leper, of the migrant, of the refugee, of the asylum seeker." Despite the grave historical context of Himid's work there is a vibrancy within Himid's pallet that breathes life and personality into these figures that have been widely shrouded in political darkness and depersonalised for the socio-political gain of others. There is an undoubtable sense of drama to the installation which is largely influenced by Himid's background in theatre design enabling a developed use and understanding of space and object-presence. The accompanying text for each character explains their previous life in Africa and the role in which they have been enslaved for example:
"My name is Nakati
They call me John
I used to make masks
Now my shoes are worn by kings
But I have the colour"
This use of classical literary storytelling and theatrical form re-tells the experience of slavery, focusing on the complex realities of identity. Although enslaved people were subjected to racist beliefs that devalued them because of their skin colour and forced into positions of servitude that excluded them from middle- and upper-class life, Himid’s installation emphasizes the depth of their humanity and individuality rather than the collective limitations imposed upon them.
Above: Lubaina Himid, Naming the Money, 2004. Installation view, Spike Island, Bristol (2017). © Lubaina Himid. Work courtesy Hollybush Gardens and National Museums, Liverpool. Image © Spike Island and photographer Stuart Whipps.
Laura Aguilar's work explores Chicana (an American woman or girl of Mexican origin or descent.),queer, disabled identity and struggles with poverty through monochromatic self-portraits. Aguilar's work documents the marginalized and underrepresented women of America resonating with many through its documentation of a person grappling with the multiplicity of their identity and use of art as a medium for self-exploration. From her photographs Aguilar wanted "to have a statement about how I feel about my body and how I feel that people take away my person." This navigation of de-personalisation is exemplified in her 1990 photographic series Three Eagles Flying. The series sees Aguilar between American and Mexican flags, nude, trapped in a rope that simultaneously serves as a noose and handcuffs, her head covered by the Mexican flag and her lower body covered by the American flag. Aguilar's construction of this scene deliberately obscures any personal signifiers such as hair colour and facial features. In this image Aguilar is purely presenting the elements of her identity that cause her conflict : American, Mexican and woman. These Intersecting identity aspects both confine and define Aguilar constricting her and enabling her equally.
Yinka Shonibare CBE’s Uses bold pattern-work and colours drawn from historical batik design to construct sculptural installations that explore the impact of colonialism and its relationship to British identity and conceptions of class. Shonibare's Decolonised Structures (2022-23) saw Indonesian batik designs painted onto small-scale replicas of iconic London Sculptures. These patterns were mass produced by Dutch markets and became known as "African prints" through their sale to British colonies in West Africa. By drenching colonial figures such as Kitchener and Queen Victoria in these prints with deep colony histories Shonibare responds and continues debate around the status and presence we award individuals in public statues. In a similar vein to Himid's work there is a distinct vibrancy to Shonibare's sculptures that contrasts the typical stone grey of a public statue providing such a vivid sensory experience that it reaches the point of overload. The change in scale to these sculptures also removes the imposing nature their stone counterparts have. Being shorter and smaller these sculptures allow the viewer to confront these figures in ways previously not afforded to them, reducing their status as authoritarian figures.
A fact that all of these artists hold at the core of their work is that our social issues and our understanding of identity are multifaceted and in constant flux. As our understanding of identity and the politics surrounding it develops the interlinked, spider-chart like truth of it becomes more clear. In the end, identity is less a fixed label than a moving target, one that becomes legible through the lens of intersectional practices.
Sources:
https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality-more-two-decades-later
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