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A hallucinatory dream sequence vibrates at the core of Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror film Get Out, in which the Black protagonist is lured into captivity by a liberal white family who seem all smiles and graciousness as they plot to consume his life force. Some people point to Peele’s phantasmagoric nightmare as the spark that revived a genre of art called Afro-surrealism.
Since then, there’s been a flood of dream-like imagery by Black artists ranging from Beyoncé to Daniel Glover to Kendrick Lamar, notes Lanre Bakare, writing in the Guardian. The form can be traced to African and African-Caribbean artists producing surreal works as far back as the 1920s.
“It’s no wonder our pop cultural landscape is turning Afro-surreal at a time when society is wrestling with racial violence, bias and inequality,” writes Bakare.
He quotes Terri Francis, director of the Black Film Center & Archive at Indiana University, saying the genre “is very realistic in representing the absurdity of Black life.”
In North America, observes Francis, “the ideals are there and you’re aware of what should be going on… but that’s not the reality.”
That destructive disconnect is powerfully explored by New Westminster artist Crystal Noir’s Guilty As Skin, an exhibit of her paintings on display at the Gallery at Queen’s Park in New Westminster until Feb. 26.
The work “was born from my own feelings of fear being a Black woman, as we continue to witness harrowing displays of police violence towards BIPOC communities throughout Turtle Island (North America),” writes Noir, who is of Jamaican and Ukrainian descent, in her artist’s statement.
“Specifically, it focuses on how this dichotomy presents itself differently in both the system vs. media in relation to gender, class and sexual identities — guiding the viewer through various scenarios of racial oppression.”
Noir, who is self-taught, calls Afro-surrealism “more than just an artistic expression, but a political one and a form of self-assertion. Each piece presents numerous double meanings which challenge the viewer to push past their first interaction with the work. From the deconstructed heads of each figure, custom metallic colours that illuminate in low-light conditions and impasto brushwork synchronized to the state of each subject’s psyche — every choice is as deliberate and intentional as the brutality in question.”
Crystal Noir’s ‘Guilty as Skin’ exhibit in on display at the Gallery at Queen’s Park, in New Westminster, until Feb. 26. On Sunday, Feb. 19, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., Noir will give a talk about her work and artistic process at the gallery. ![[Tyee]](/design-article.thetyee.ca/ui/img/yellowblob.png){kind=small}
Read more: Rights + Justice, Art
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