| dc.description.abstract |
Jezebels , Mammies , and Matriarchs… These labels signify racialized and gendered social constructions that transnationally pervade the lives of black women . By contextualizing black women’s artwork as visual responses to social subjugation and objectification , one can discern the (literal ) materialization of black feminist epistemology through artistic production and the aesthetic concerns that drive expressive work . This thesis therefore analyzes black Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino’s work as a visual form of resistance to three major “controlling images” of black women in Brazil as sexually promiscuous , domestic laborers , and unfit mothers . Her work represents not only the Brazilian black woman’s experience ; it broadens and deepens the conversation on black women’s art in Africa and its diasporas , where similar stereotypes exist . Several of Paulino’s personal statements and artworks address subjects that parallel those made by black women artists - -María Magdalena Campos -Pons , Lorna Simpson , Zanele Muholi , and Wangechi Mutu , to name a few - -whose artwork is also considered in this paper . Articulated to an international community of black women artists , Paulino’s artwork contributes to the development of a space in art history for the representation of black Brazilian women that enriches understandings of other established areas , be they social , artistic , medical , sexual , cultural , political or economical . |
|