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seminar - art history

Spring 2020

Course #801

Mapenzi-C Simekha

The image is a body that has a scarf tied around its waist, with white waist beads and has the illusion of moving to a beat. We cannot label the body as male or female because we are forced to come to terms with whether the body is of a queer or fluid identifying person or a male cross-dresser. The viewer is forced to expand their ideas of sexualities and check themselves on why the need to sexualize and gender the body in the first place. The beads speak to the indigenous Afrika knowledge on sexualities, hence beads were worn for different purposes and different colors signified different messages.

© 2023 by Laurie Beth Clark

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