The Unruly Art of McArthur Freeman
McArthur Freeman (Grad. Art+Design) has a featured article, written by Michael D. Harris, in this months Photography+Film Special Issue of the Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art.
Where no art history exists, critical journals and other related platforms are crucial to moulding its discourse and involve all the intellectual processes that such an undertaking implies.
In a newly developing field like contemporary African art, a critical journal should play a significant role in creating the very discourse of the discipline itself. Nka represents a step forward in that direction.
It is an important initiative in the field of contemporary African and African Diaspora art, which has been neglected within the art historical debate.
[Excerpt] McArthur Freeman works in an unruly manner. His work resists categorization while it challenges assumptions and stereotypical mythologies. He combines Pinocchio and Sambo, or Pinocchio and Tom and Jerry with Mammy Two Shoes to make provocative visual statements about contemporary visual culture and the presence of myths, fantasies and stereotypes. He says, “The work is about… exploring, confronting and creating distorted images of self in the form of myths, stereotypes and fantasies, particularly around ideas about blackness and race” Like the work of so many African American artists, Freeman’s work is about self-perception and misperception…
This post is tagged: art+design, contemporary, new media, visualization