Aesthetics of Excess : The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment

Heavy makeup, gaudy jewelry, dramatic hairstyles, and clothes that are considered cheap, fake, too short, too tight, or too masculine: working-class Black and Latina girls and women are often framed as embodying "excessive" styles that are presumed to indicate sexual deviance. In Aesthetics of Excess Jillian Hernandez examines how middle-class discourses of aesthetic value racialize the bodies of women and girls of color. At the same time, their style can be a source of cultural capital when appropriated by the contemporary art scene. Drawing on her community arts work with Black and Latina girls in Miami, Hernandez analyzes the art and self-image of these girls alongside works produced by contemporary artists and pop musicians such as Wangechi Mutu, Kara Walker, and Nicki Minaj. Through these relational readings, Hernandez shows how notions of high and low culture are complicated when women and girls of color engage in cultural production and how they challenge the policing of their bodies and sexualities through artistic authorship. Heavy makeup, gaudy jewelry, dramatic hairstyles, and clothes that are considered cheap, fake, too short, too tight, or too masculine: working-class Black and Latina girls and women are often framed as embodying "excessive" styles that are presumed to indicate sexual deviance. In Aesthetics of Excess Jillian Hernandez examines how middle class discourses of aesthetic value racialize the bodies of women and girls of color. At the same time their style can be a source of cultural capital when appropriated by the contemporary art scene. Drawing on her community arts work with Black and Latina girls Miami, Florida, Hernandez analyzes the art and self-image of these girls alongside works produced by contemporary artists and pop musicians such as Wangechi Mutu, Kara Walker, and Nicki Minaj. Through these relational readings, Hernandez shows how notions of high and low culture are complicated when women and girls of color engage in cultural production and how they challenge the policing of their bodies and sexualities through artistic authorship Heavy makeup, gaudy jewelry, dramatic hairstyles, and clothes thatare considered cheap, fake, too short, too tight, or too masculine:working-class Black and Latina girls and women are often framed asembodying "excessive" styles that are presumed to indicate sexualdeviance. In Aesthetics of Excess Jillian Hernandezexamines how middle-class discourses of aesthetic value racializethe bodies of women and girls of color. At the same time, theirstyle can be a source of cultural capital when appropriated by thecontemporary art scene. Drawing on her community arts work withBlack and Latina girls in Miami, Hernandez analyzes the art andself-image of these girls alongside works produced by contemporaryartists and pop musicians such as Wangechi Mutu, Kara Walker, andNicki Minaj. Through these relational readings, Hernandez shows hownotions of high and low culture are complicated when women andgirls of color engage in cultural production and how they challengethe policing of their bodies and sexualities through artisticauthorship "Aesthetics of Excess examines how the bodies of women and girls of color are racialized through cultural discourses of aesthetic value that mark them as sexual "others," and how in turn, aesthetic value is generated through the presentation of their bodies. Hernandez employs participatory research with young women of color, critical readings of art and popular culture, and autoethnography to provide new frameworks for understanding the relationships between cultural production and racialized bodies that can be variously exploitative and socially transformative. The book is grounded in Hernandez's community arts work with Black and Latina girls through Women on the Rise!, an outreach project she established at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, Florida"-- Provided by publisher Cover Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Interlude One One. Reading Black and Latina Embodiment in Miami Two. Sexual-Aesthetic Excess: Or, How Chonga Girls Make Class Burn Three. “Fine as Hell”: The Aesthetic Erotics of Masculinity Interlude Two Four. Rococo Pink: The Power of Nicki Minaj’s Aesthetics of Fakery Interlude Three Five. Encounters with Excess: Girls Creating Art, Theory, and Sexual Bodies Interlude Four Epilogue Notes References Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z