Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

1-1-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Southern Studies

First Advisor

Catarina Passidomo

Second Advisor

Vanessa Charlot

Third Advisor

Brooke White

School

University of Mississippi

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

The perspectives of Black theorists, artists, and curators have reinvigorated the conversation around the presence and absence of Black art within a larger context of societal construction. The disregard of Black art is not by happenstance but one that adversely influences the cultural and visual dialogue that is meaningful to interpreting, understanding, and navigating the implications of Blackness and its existence. However, a digital body of work, Into the Unknown’s concept stems from examining documentary photography, literature, and African American cinema. Through these mediums, five theories: post-colonialism studies, feminism, reception/gaze, and post- modernism take an analytical approach within the framework of diasporic and contemporary art movements that provide credence to Black art’s existence and contribution in contrast to a Western perspective frequently ingested and used throughout art narratives in support of its misrepresentation and exclusion. Analyzing Into the Unknown, a body of work created between 2020 and 2024, this thesis paper examines how the reimagination of southern Black existence through a Black artistic lens is necessary to contribute to the conversation surrounding Black art in institutionalized spaces, curatorial considerations, and creative realms. Into the Unknown serves as a bridge to past, present, and future interpretations of southern Black existence within the scope of mirroring and challenging how audiences see Black art and why the pendulum has begun to swing in a more inclusive direction and representative than ever before.

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Available for download on Friday, July 30, 2027

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