DAYOUNG LEE<\/p>\n
In Zora Neale Hurston\u2019s essay on \u201cCharacteristics of Negro Expression,\u201d she writes about asymmetry, noting \u201cthe presence of rhythm and lack of symmetry,\u201d in, for example, African-American dance. While these dances are difficult for white dancers, Black dancers are \u201caccustomed to the break in going from one part to another\u201d and \u201cadjust[ing]\u2026to the new tempo,\u201d portraying some sort of innate understanding of asymmetry. Asymmetry has been significant in Black American experience through experiences with identity, specifically, the absence of privilege to define oneself instead of having others dictate your identity in part or whole. Every individual deals with a disconnect between how they view themselves and how others view them, but this experience is largely distorted and inflated by racism for people of color in the United States. This despotic asymmetry, or the enforced disconnect between one\u2019s own identity and the one pushed upon them, is corroborated by Glenn Ligon\u2019s untitled etchings, which explicitly explore issues of identity.<\/p>\n
Recent theorizations on identity have much to do with fluidity through positionality; identity is defined by how we are positioned by others and how we position ourselves. The somewhat free-flowing nature of these definitions, however simplistically I have rendered them in the interest of space, is challenged by Ligon\u2019s etchings, which turns ideas of positionality and relationality into the despotic asymmetry I have begun to outline. The first etching repeats \u201cI do not always feel colored\u201d over and over until it becomes more and more blurred and unreadable, perhaps representing the lack of permanence in the statement with respect to the ever-changing nature of identity. The growing illegibility also suggests the inability for the viewer to truly comprehend the many facets and implications of the position expressed by the text of the etching.<\/p>\n
Ligon\u2019s second etching repeats \u201cI feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background,\u201d and similarly becomes less and less legible as the words continue. The text of these two etchings demonstrate the despotism and asymmetry involved in shifting positionalities of identity. \u201cI do not always feel colored,\u201d the first proclaims, a sentence that seems incomplete on its own, but at the least claims an identity that is not always \u201ccolored.\u201d The second then declares, \u201cI feel most colored when I am thrown against<\/em> a sharp white background.\u201d The operative words here are \u201cthrown against,\u201d illustrating the lack of agency on the part of the subject to choose their situation or positioning. Thus, the subject moves through different identity positions unwillingly, becoming \u201ccolored\u201d as a result of some force, someone, or something throwing them onto a sharp (which also reads as painful) white background.<\/p>\n Finally, the actual act of etching reflects the trauma of Black identity formation. Black letters are created through their prolonged inundation in harsh, biting acid; their formation comes only through this hardship. The relational aspects of diasporic identity may be touted by some as antihierarchical and rhizomatic\u2014a postmodernist\u2019s dream\u2014but Ligon\u2019s etchings demonstrate the pain and trauma inherent in identities that have been forcibly made fluid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DAYOUNG LEE In Zora Neale Hurston\u2019s essay on \u201cCharacteristics of Negro Expression,\u201d she writes about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/afk2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/afk2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/afk2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/afk2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/afk2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/afk2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/afk2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/afk2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/afk2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/afk2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}