Tschabalala Self in her studio. Photo by Christian DeFonte
“I think that there’s a correlation to American culture’s fascination with celebrity and the nation’s youth as a country,” says Self in this interview for the
Brooklyn Rail. “Not having a unified or a deep-rooted spirituality, or a cultural core—because the nation is so young, individuals get elevated to the level of icons—celebrities become the idols, they are our ‘extra-ordinary people.’ But then if you look at a group that's been marginalized within a fragile system, America itself already being a somewhat fragile system, I think this tendency is exaggerated. Celebrity culture takes up even more psychological space in the collective mind of Black America, because of Black America’s history and positionality within this nation. To see an individual that looks like you be exalted and seemingly lifted above the muck of racism and disenfranchisement is a phenomenon.”
Post Date: 03-16-2021