High Yellow: A Hue of American Warfare
Open AccessFueled by my identity as an African American woman, my thesis "High Yellow: A Hue of American Warfare" focuses on identity formation, particularly in young black girls as they are faced with the challenge of absorbing, integrating or rejecting Eurocentric aesthetic ideals and traditions. In most cases, this strategy of protection is often indoctrinated during the developing stages of childhood to equip them with the defense of social mimicry. I use my background and experiences as an illustration of an identity in difference and a form of queer blackness against prevailing stereotypes and social norms while investigating what characterizes the transparency or opacity of labels as they are influenced by intersections of gender, race, class and medium. The presentation of race is parallel with socioeconomic status as the ability to access resources for self-presentation becomes more available with prosperity. However once affluence is achieved, one’s position in their own community becomes compromised. To explore this tension, I engage the histories and traditions of painting to mirror the discourse of societal organization. "High Yellow: A Hue of American Warfare" investigates how the physical medium of paint and the methods of execution can influence the content depicted on the surface as well as discovers an overlap between medium hierarchy and social politics associated with race and class.
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