The Sound of Light: Reflections on Art History in the Visual Culture of Hip-Hop

Thompson, Krista A.

doi:10.1080/00043079.2009.10786149

Cited by 52 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…In her analysis of bling 3 in the visual economy of American hip-hop, Krista Thompson (2009) reflects on black subjectivity’s relationship to visibility. She notes how the shiny surface of bling and its capacity to refract light test the limits of vision.…”

Section: Between Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Testing The Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It saturates the visual plane, ultimately blinding the viewer … Bling, then, conveys a state between hypervisibility and blinding invisibility, between visual surplus and disappearance. (Thompson, 2009: 483)…”

Section: Between Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Testing The Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead of playing off a bejewelled trinket, the light draws the viewer’s eye to the multi-coloured surface of the protagonist’s body. This mesmerising covering in ‘Allogène’ and the bodily special effects in ‘Daniel Darc’ employ surfacism much in the same way as bling, emphasising the material or visual texture of objects (Thompson, 2009: 485). The fact that the surface of the body monopolises the viewer’s gaze brings naturalised structures of vision to consciousness in order to question their limits.…”

Section: Between Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Testing The Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The fact that the surface of the body monopolises the viewer’s gaze brings naturalised structures of vision to consciousness in order to question their limits. As Thompson (2009: 499) argues, the visual economy of hip-hop throws into relief the reliance on surface as the site where visually perceptible racialised difference is inscribed. By destabilising the surface of the body, both ‘Allogène’ and ‘Daniel Darc’ undermine the capacity of vision to fixate and incorporate the body into pre-existing schemas.…”

Section: Between Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Testing The Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I situate my reading of Malik’s work within critical race theory’s recent focus on aesthetics and how visual technologies may be employed to envision new modes of self-representation. I enter into dialogue with Krista Thompson’s (2009) discussion of light and surfacism in the visual economy of American hip-hop, Michelle Ann Stephens’ (2014) focus on the materiality of skin, and Anne Anlin Cheng’s (2011) analysis of stylistic references to surface and texture. By incorporating critical race theory, I address a void in the discussion of French rap in thinking about how these artists aesthetically speak to the specifically French relationship to the visibility of race.…”

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confidence: 99%

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‘Tout de noir vêtu’: Skin and surface in the rap of Abd al Malik

Shuman

2018

French Cultural Studies

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This paper investigates the visual aesthetics of French rap with regard to questions of race and subjectivity through an analysis of both the lyrics and music videos of the rapper Abd al Malik. Abd al Malik addresses the central question of corporeal visibility in a ‘colour-blind’ French society. His performance depicts the skin as a surface, rooting his corporeal subjectivity in a tactile experience. Through the use of light, oversaturated colour and constantly shifting forms, Abd al Malik’s videos test the limits of vision to create a sensorial experience that incorporates, yet transcends, the visibility of epidermalised blackness. The consciousness of self and others is therefore not achieved by an unmasking or a shedding of blackness, but through the recognition of skin as a material surface that both challenges the presumption that an individual’s interiority is legible on the body’s exterior and invites the more complex, sensorial contact of universal, human relationality.

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Section: Between Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Testing The Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Between Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Testing The Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Between Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Testing The Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Between Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Testing The Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘Tout de noir vêtu’: Skin and surface in the rap of Abd al Malik

Shuman

2018

French Cultural Studies

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Racial capitalism

Michael

Singhal

2019

Theor Soc

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Artifacting Identity. How Grillz, Ball Gags and Gas Masks Expand the Face

Voto

Soro

2022

Topoi

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By questioning the attribution of a primary role to the eyes as bearers of identity within traditional Western culture, this paper will problematize the agentivity performed by the lower mereology of the face, identified with the mouth-nose assemblage. In particular, the study will focus on the manipulation of such facial spatiality through the intervention of three “lower face” artifacts: the grill, the ball gag and the gas mask. This piece of work will examine their plastic and figurative dimensions in the technological interaction with the facial organs. Furthermore, we will take into consideration the sociocultural context of wearability performed by the different bearers with the aim of grasping the identity shift that the artifacts trigger. The study, therefore, will organize the corpus as a sequence that starts inside the oral cavity where the grill is worn; then moves to a progressive exteriority with the ball gag that emerges from the mouth through the straps fastened around the head; eventually dealing with the exterior projection operated by the gas mask which by means of its filters portends beyond the anatomical face. Ultimately the three artifacts are presented as a threefold articulation of a liminal agency towards an expanded form of humanity including animality embedded within and without the space of meaning represented by the face.

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The Sound of Light: Reflections on Art History in the Visual Culture of Hip-Hop

Cited by 52 publications

References 55 publications

‘Tout de noir vêtu’: Skin and surface in the rap of Abd al Malik

‘Tout de noir vêtu’: Skin and surface in the rap of Abd al Malik

Racial capitalism

Artifacting Identity. How Grillz, Ball Gags and Gas Masks Expand the Face

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