Tuesday, December 27, 2016

dont underestimate taxonomic power

when you name something you have power over it a la adam. my favorites "so-called negro" and "asiatic," because 'we are what we are, but you want to put us in a box,' and 'asiatic' for solidarity reasons (see housing covenants in the US and 'whites only'/'no negros, jews, or mongoloids/mongolians' in the 1920s, see Carl Linnaeus)... Nomenclature, 2016, Presented at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) as part of the group show, The Arch of My Eye's Orbit (curated by Hrag Vartanian)
"Here, Rasheed pairs a grid of 21 framed prints bearing the terms uncovered in her research with a print of a 1967 Ebony magazine spread entitled, "What's in a Name?" where Lerone Bennett Jr. reprints Du Bois' 1928 editorial response in a gesture to reignite the national debate over naming. In doing so, Rasheed carries this conversation into the 21st century, suggesting that issues related to the language of taxonomies and their role in race relations in the US is anything but resolved."

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