"38.8%: Visualizing Racial Identity in Search of Selfhood and Others"
Please join the MSU Department of Art, Art History, and Design at The Union Art Gallery on Michigan State Universities' Campus for
38.8%: Visualizing Racial Identity in Search of Selfhood and Others, featuring the work of 2021-2022 Artist-in-Residence: Critical Race Studies, Dr. Elka Stevens. This exhibition is on view Monday, April 25 – Friday, June 10, 2022.
In 38.8%, artist and designer Elka Stevens visually interrogates aspects of race, ethnicity, nationality, genetics, and their presentation as part of identity. Although many aspects of identity are out of people’s control and largely unseen, clothing allows individuals and groups to communicate messages about themselves, their cultures, activities, events, locations, and employment. Using textiles and clothing as a primary vehicle to present ideas about race, Stevens presents a mini-collection of stylized, wearable garments for women and selected artifacts that engage both the viewer and wearer in a dialogue about race and identity that explores how we wear our identities. Featured garments and accessories include dresses, a skirt, and a wrap. A quilt and blanket also narrate the social and physical attributes of race. The designs incorporate sewing techniques, such as embroidery, quilting, and applique. Surface design techniques incorporate aspects of genealogy research into the collection. Archival research and imagery also contribute to the works, through motifs that include a family charts document and present wearable family histories. Color, along with other elements of design and their guiding principles, bring attention to an articulated genetic makeup. In sum,
38.8% is a re-presentation of a lived experience through worn and displayed objects.
38.8% Music Playist
Enjoy the Spotify playlist that accompanies the show. Warning: Explicit content.
38.8% Reading List
If books are your preference, consider the following books and articles for reading pleasure:
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BOOKS
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Roots (1976) by Alex Haley
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Who’s Black and Why?:
A Hidden Chapter from
the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race (2022) by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Andrew
S. Curran (eds.)
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White Man’s Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in the United States (1974) by Winthrop Jordan
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Parable of the Sower
(1993)
by Octavia Butler
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The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
by
W. E. B. Dubois
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The Wretched of the Earth (1968) by Franz Fanon
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Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) by Paulo Freire
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The Isis Papers (1982)
by Frances Cress Welsing
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The 1619 Projec: A New origin Story (2021)
by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, and Jake Silverstein (eds.)
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The Bluest Eye (1970)
by Toni Morrison
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Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other
Conversations about Race (2003) by Beverly Daniel Tatum
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Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement by Kimberlé
Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Garry Peller, Kendall Thomas (Eds.)
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Ain't I A Woman?: Black Woman and Feminism (1987) by bell hooks)
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The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome (2016) by Alondra Nelson
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FASHION BOOKS
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Black Designers in American Fashion (2021) by Elizabeth Way (ed.)
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Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem: A Memoir (2021) by Daniel R. Day
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 Threads Of Time, The Fabric of History: Profiles of African American Dressmakers and Designers from 1850 To The Present (2007) by Rosemary Reed Miller
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Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced (2013) by Daniela
Morera and Stephen Burrows
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Willi Smith: Street Couture (2020) by Alexandra Cunningham
Cameron (ed.)
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ARTICLES
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Coates,
Ta-Nehisi. (2014). The Case for Reparations. The Atlantic.
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DiAngelo, Robin.
(2017). Why It's So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism. Huffington
Post.
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McIntosh,
Peggy. (1989). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Peace
and Freedom.
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Serwer,
Adam. (2020). The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out
Who Was Dying. The Atlantic.
More Resources:
Additional images from the show will be posted at a later date.
Click here to see the poster from the show.
If you would like to schedule a tour with the artist,
please email Elka at elka@elkastevens.com.
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