First coming into contact with Tameka's work prior to her grad studies, she was just finishing up her undergrad work at UCLA. I think it was her video, Licker, which first caught my eye. It was very original and I figured anybody who could dance around the Armand Hammer Sculpture Garden with nary a problem had my vote. Little did I know that that will probably be the only video anybody will ever take of the type of dancing around with Gaston Lachaise and Debora Butterfield sculptures and the like. I love the mixture of high brow and low brow, of mixing the sexual energy of a live person, together with sexual energy that is found within many classic works of art, yet are seen as something other than that because they are bronze and they are somehow hallowed (same thinking of Marc Quinn in some of his work) http://www.tamekanorrisart.com/projects/licker-video-dos-mil-diez/
The other works that also initially caught my eye were the vibrant, but seemingly simple portraits of Tameka eating a watermelon. Provocative, sexually charged, while at the same time evoking racial stereotypes, replete with watermelon, I found the photos extremely compelling. The details of the liquid dripping off the face and arms, and the pit adorning the cheek evoke Marilyn Minter. You can't tell if Tameka is mocking the viewer or if she wishes to be mocked. Perhaps, as is often the case, it's a little bit of both. She draws you in with a look, but simultaneously attempts to repel with the seemingly ridiculous act of eating the watermelon and getting it all over herself. Why, oopsie, I made a mess of myself.
Tameka's works really make you think. While they have the obvious sexual draw, there is something about them that makes you want to look away as well, feeling guilty of looking in the first place.
It's the same with the Post-Katrina works, which are creating on bed sheets (evoking Rauschenberg's combine, Bed). I find these much more interesting than another bed piece I can think of, Tracey Emin's homage to herself. Tameka's stars in her works, but I don't feel that she trying to draw attention to herself, but rather to the character which she portrays, a la Kalup Linzey.
Tameka is somebody who is going places, and I could see her work up at the Whitney Biennial one of these years. She was featured in Modern Painter's issue of artists to watch. Wise choice.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteand what if you didn't know about Rauschenberg or Tracey Emin? what then would the work by Tameka Norris be validated with?
ReplyDeleteIf Tameka Norris isn't trying to draw attention to herself then her work must be like that of Josephine Baker or Carmen Miranda whose first gained popularity by exploiting their bodies and were then exploited by French and American audiences no end.
The distinction between survival, living and economic gains were blurred through capitalism.
"Tamika is somebody who is going places" ... as long as she hyper sexualizes herself then she will always be a spectacle minus critical acceptance. A physical muse for a superficial audience interested in Black bodies without any signs of collective accomplishments or self-respect.
"It does mark us. What we allow the mark of our suffering to become is in our own hands.” -bell hooks